Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Saturday, April 20th, 2024

Afghanistan will Set into a Corruption Coliseum after the Troops Drawdown

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Afghanistan will Set into a Corruption Coliseum after  the Troops Drawdown

The information in news reports reportedly and openly suggests the acceleration and in timidation of Taliban in various parts of Afghanistan in the last few months. Currently, according to researchers and analysts, Afghanistan seems to be collapsing into chaos and the security condition will be even worse when US-led international forces will withdraw in 2014 from the country, since the very ongoing situation seems very complex than ever seen before. The huge amount of the Aid money being wisely poured for reconstructing the country, now is going either to corruption or to prop up people and institutions that will not last five minutes once the foreign aid taps are turned off.

The huge amount of money which was being spent in Afghanistan on the basis of projects, aids, funds, donations, sponsorships and charity could perhaps very likely guarantee the country's future even if the international troops will withdraw from the country, if the government had shifted the corrupt and disloyal employees earlier by focusing its concentration more on striving to recruiting more sympathetic and conscience people who are morally enthusiastic on rebuilding Afghanistan and honestly devoting time in combating the every tough, challenging crisis and corruption that our country is facing today, the country wouldn't now to full extend depend on the other countries aids for stabilizing, combating corruption or insecurity. The spread of corruption is on its extreme and yet no one could dare to ask that how the money was spent and who profited from it since 2001. Most of the funds were funneled to a vast array of U.S. and foreign contractors. But according to a recent audit, there is no way of knowing whether the money went for the intended purposes as the money flows from Washington to Afghanistan, with little oversight and accountability, and at every step along the way someone else takes a cut.
Notably, since 2002, US have invested $1.4 billion in supporting the farmers to grow crops other than opium with mixed results which is an understatement. The improper and lack of accountability for billions of dollars of spending is frightening, leading corruption, fraud and other abuse which are turning to become more apparent.

According to Washington Post, one narcotics and law enforcement program's $800 million contract services in Afghanistan are managed by one officer whose name is in the top listed names of other warlords and criminals. Many aid projects cannot be visited due to security concerns in the rural areas and the authorized people themselves are becoming corrupted by cutting the projects from its every angle. Others are known to be half-built or not built at all, although they have been fully paid for, because no assessment has been done on the ground.

According to the Huffington Post on Feb, 2011, the Special General for Afghanistan reconstruction warned that the entire $11.4 billion for constructing and maintaining nearly 900 Afghan National Security Forces facilities is at great risk due to inadequate planning and corruption.

Indeed, such drawbacks in Afghanistan have begun to worry the whole nation and are the worst threat to developing and stabilizing effort, as it is becoming a real heaven for the world's warlords and criminals and an absolute hell for the poor and helpless people in Afghanistan.

The Afghan economy now completely runs on opium sales and foreign aid. Once the aid is pulled out, the wretched nation will return to its natural condition of being a narco-economy and best room for corruption including other warlords.

In such touchy situation that currently Afghanistan is based on, will that trend stop when the Americans leave the country? Of course not, and the things will change so quickly that will shift the country into a real hell.

Remember what happened after the last American troops left South Vietnam in March 1973, at that stage the South had defeated the North on the battle field. America promised to support the South financially, but the Arab-Israeli War later that year diverted US arms and money to Israel and pushed up oil prices and inflation, with devastating effects on the South Vietnamese economy but it got worse.
According to the book Unheralded Victory by Mark W. Woodruff (Harper Collins in 1999), "The return of Cold War hostilities between the Soviet Union and America saw the US Congress revoke Russia's most favored trading nation status, removing the 1972 trade concessions that had enticed them to reduce aid to Hanoi.

The Soviet Union responded by once again pouring money and equipment into North Vietnam." In 1975, the North invaded the South again, this time successfully. Obviously, this won't happen in Afghanistan, but other things might. While there are many problems with American aid, there will be a whole set of new ones, possibly much worse, when it is finally withdrawn. As one day it will be, Security concerns will make it difficult for foreign contractors to work on the battlefield, forcing reliance on local contractors with little accountability. It's an endless cycle of frustration and failure that brings more disappointment.

At the most micro of levels, there are the real concerns. The taxes may pale in comparison to the weapons and drug trades, but with insurgents gaining a large chunk of the revenues from hundreds of thousands of exports each year, the profits help feed the conflict. And for farmers living close to subsistence levels, the extortion may make survival even a challenge.
Ultimately, the enduring corruption and collusion between political elites and insurgents may not define the post-war Afghanistan or what America's nearly 10-year legacy will mean when all U.S. troops have departed. But it does challenge any notion of a long-term stay in the region.

While the focus in Washington has centered on bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, Rondeaux said that her research of everyday life in Afghanistan shows that it would be a mistake to see a political solution as a solve-all to the country's problems.

It will not address the growing organized crime networks in Afghanistan and the U.S. and its partners are withdrawing their forces and making power-sharing arrangements. It doesn't mean these will hold or that Americans should feel comfortable with how they are leaving this place but is very much likely that the country once again will become a corruption coliseum after the drawdown of the United States and its allies.

Abdul Samad Haidari is the permanent writer of the Daily outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

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