Echoing comments from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that the US could begin withholding aid from Afghanistan over corruption.
“The place to start is the place where we have the greatest leverage, and that’s where we’re writing the checks,” Gates noted. Since the 2001 invasion, the US and international forces have pumped billions into largely fruitless development projects.
And in Afghanistan, money that isn’t accounted for is a dangerous thing indeed, for it doesn’t stay on the books for long. Afghanistan was recently ranked the second most corrupt nation on the planet, narrowly missing top honors behind Somalia.
At the same time with the US pumping ever increasing numbers of soldiers into the nation, it seems as though the threat to withhold civilian aid must almost certainly be an empty one, as the international forces must at least keep up the pretense of doing something productive in the nation.
Somehow it doesn't seem very effectual to support Karzai's fraudulent re-election and then threaten to undermine his new government by withholding aid. Karzai's got the upper hand at this point, knowing that the US government needs him to maintain the cheap illusory image of democracy in Afghanistan as much as he needs them for money and military support..
is that what is meant by signing off,corrupt or just plain old rotten to the core,,,OO,takes one to know one,the story keeps changing,well that & New Zealland & tuna (smells like in ?_24/7=364.25 ) fill in the blankzs and win free prizes
corruption threatens to withhold graft,,,until it is agreed to kiss the devils' ass simultaneously