US officials, led by Senator John Kerry (D – MA) are warning of a massive economic crisis in already impoverished Afghanistan if NATO indeed ends their war at the end of 2014 and leaves the country.
The argument, according to Kerry and others, is that NATO is spending such massive amounts of money in the nation that Afghanistan is built around a “wartime economy” with 97% of the official GDP linked directly to foreign spending.
At the same time, a Senate report on Afghanistan suggests that a large portion of the money being thrown at Afghanistan is simply being wasted. The massive level of graft in Afghanistan, one of the most corrupt nations on earth, means a lot of the money being pumped into the nations is winding up in the pockets of bureaucrats.
It seems there is little case to be made that the “wartime economy” is benefitting the civilian populace, even putting aside the large numbers of them being killed in the decade-long war itself. This leaves open the question of, if Afghanistan indeed is hit with an “economic crisis” post war, whether anyone will be able to tell the difference.
