Karzai Lashes Efforts to Bypass Govt With Foreign Aid

Says Aid Must Be Used to 'Demonstrate Afghan Leadership'

Speaking today in Munich, Afghan President Hamid Karzai today condemned efforts by NATO member nations to route their “reconstruction” projects around the notoriously corrupt government, saying it undermines the effectiveness of those projects.

Karzai also insisted that the government is “determined to demonstrate Afghan leadership” on the ground and suggested that the demonstration would have to include helping to coordinate those aid projects.

Karzai also insisted that the inefficiencies in the government were in part the result of “ill-coordinated technical assistance from our partners” and promised to modernize his nation’s bureaucracy.

He also promised to target corruption, which is a promise that has been made so many times that is borders on the absurd. Repeatedly NGO reports have put Afghanistan as either the most corrupt nation in the world or second most corrupt, depending on if they count the self-proclaimed government in Somalia or not.

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.