Afghanistans Bitter Future
The United States has spent $104 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan over the last 13 years. Approximately $62 billion of this total has been used to support the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Nobody knows how much of this U.S. taxpayer cash has been stolen. Nobody seems to be confident that the U.S.-funded programs can be sustained as the U.S. winds down its Afghan engagement.
At the end of 2014 in a few days time U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan will officially end. John F. Sopko, Special U.S. Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), recently noted that more than 10,000 U.S. military personnel will remain, but in a training and support role.
He is worried that, despite the vast aid provided by the United States to help Afghanistan build a democratic and secure nation, the massive effort will unravel.
It will cost the Afghan government billions of dollars annually to maintain its army and police force.
In addition, it has to finance essential energy infrastructure, to run the key governmental departments and to continue many of the projects funded by the U.S. and other Western countries.
Sopko states that total government revenues amount to just about $2 billion a year far, far less than is essential. Vast amounts of foreign aid will have to be raised for years to come to keep ANSF and the government going.
I asked Sopko how much of the $104 billion in reconstruction funds has gone missing (and where it has gone). He replied, It is impossible to provide an exact figure. The total runs into billions and billions.
There is not even a database that has tracked all the contracts that have been concluded even though the United States has been in the country for 13 years this is horrible.
It is every Afghans dream to get this money out of the country. We just cannot lose this amount of money again, the American people will not stand for it.
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Afghanistans Bitter Future