Corrupt politicians and a bribery-centric economy has been the order of the day in US-occupied Afghanistan for many years. But that’s just the big cities, where the corruption is built into the political system. In more rural areas, things are even worse, though no less a function of US subsidies.
Among the many recipients of US billions, Afghanistan’s spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) is awash in money from both the Pentagon and the CIA, with the usual lack of oversight that US aid seems to imply in this part of the world.
The NDS has plenty of problems of their own, but the real danger is that the NDS, in trying to “fight the Taliban” in areas less controlled by the government, bankrolls militias and warlords with US-provided funds. Indications are that the NDS doesn’t care how the job gets done, or realistically if it gets done.
Rather, the militia leaders seem free to run roughshod over the locals in this areas, using the NDS funding to gear up and extort even more from the local population, torturing anyone that resists, and killing any political rivals that get in the way.
Police say there is nothing they can realistically do about these groups, which are much larger and better equipped. Indeed, one official described a militia subsidized to be 500 strong, which is actually about 1,500 fighters now, in a district with 35 total police.
The warlord Perim Qul has run the district for about 13 years with the NDS imprimatur, and in April he killed the local provincial MP Aynuddin Rustaqi. Hundreds of his fighters surrounded the MP in a local government building, no security forces even tried to stop them.
Perim Qul was fairly honest about the matter, saying he’s not particularly interested in fighting the Taliban or ISIS, and that he will gladly fight alongside anyone that supports his battle against the Jamiat, which is the largest political party in the region.
The CIA declined comment on the matter, and the US-led coalition shrugged questions about the growing problem off, insisting Afghanistan is a “sovereign nation” and can do whatever they want domestically. That the US is occupying Afghanistan and bankrolling the government apparently doesn’t enter into it.
Shocking. What abusive evil group has our Gov not funded in the last 30+ years?
The Jamiat is the Mujahideen, and Perim Qul only fought the Taliban because he was paid to by the CIA. He has since stopped that and Taliban could ally with Perim Qul, although the U.S. is trying to stop that. I would not be surprised if Iran and Russia (or other neighboring ex-Soviets) with Putin’s blessing start taking a side (it won’t be the Mujahideen) in Afghanistan, then the Americans will have to decide how much deeper they want to go in what is already their longest war – and a total 100% failure to do anything of value.
Welcome back to the 80s. No fallout from those bad policies….right?
The objective is to maintain a perpetual low level warfare yo insure that nobody gets strong enough to resurect a sovereign state. This is a dream come true to Soros vision of open societies with no borders — a return to feudalism, the good old days when “free trade” was greased by bribes or “protection” money, “tributes” and specila legislation to give privileges to special classes for good services to feudal lord’s wives. Libya is already there, Iraq nearly broken, and Egypt excaped by a whisker.
No borders, no state, no protection to ordinary people utterly dependent on a mood of their feudal master. This is a better way to prevent the masses of useless eaters to claim their rights as citizens, or worse yet, think that they actually own their country.
As Trump has made it clear that he intends to restore the international relations to relations among nation/states — the proponents of global feudalism are naturally very disturbed. But they need not needlesly despair. The amount of failed states is so large, that it may take decades to repair the damage.