Afghan Election Crisis Continues, Govt Seeks US Bailout

Afghan Candidates Can't Agree on Releasing Vote Results

The Afghan election continues to be stalled, months later, with the two candidates both insisting the vote was fraudulent, and neither agreeing to a deal to release the results of the vote audit yet.

The problems are bigger than that for Afghanistan, however, as the government now says its broke, despite massive foreign aid it receives annually from the US and other occupiers, and needs an “immediate” $537 million bailout.

Of course it’s not unusual for governments to spend more money than they take in, even countries with a ton of foreign aid. Yet Afghanistan’s unsustainable military and its lack of anything amount to a real economy means no one is going to loan them money, so they’re once again pushing for handouts.

60% of the Afghan GDP is foreign aid right now, and while NATO will pay the Afghan military in the event of the government running out of money, the government is still down to feed them, meaning the troops could be stuck foraging for food in the countryside very soon.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.