There is growing annoyance among top US allies in Afghanistan, as they find themselves on the outside looking in at US peace talks with the Taliban. They are wondering where the negotiations are headed, and how they will be impacted.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry released footage of the February US-Taliban talks in Doha, showing seven Qatari officials were in attendance at the end of the talks. Diplomats from NATO nations involved in the war are particularly irked that Qatar got seven seats at the table, and they couldn’t even get one.
A lot of these NATO nations are also deep donors to the Afghan government, part of a planned endgame that will see Afghanistan dependent on overseas donations more or less forever. Many, however, are questioning continuing this funding, citing “donor fatigue.”
The US State Department is downplaying this, saying everybody reviews foreign aid all the time, but that they are confident that continuing to bankroll Afghanistan is in the interest of the international community.
… Well they shouldn’t be there so what is NATO complaining about.
Everybody loves a big spender…
“continuing to bankroll Afghanistan is in the interest of the international community”,,,,, And pigs can fly… Is it the $400.00’s a gallon we pay for fuel that is in the interest of the international community… For sure some countries profit from the pickel the U.S. has blundered into. Just wish you would tell me how it”s in the our interest to be the one in the barrel. I’d say that the stupid bush junior thought the graveyard of empires would be easy, but he and his but buds are doing fine @ 2000 million dollars a month… How much gets “skimmed” of that 2 billion…???
Donor fatigue is really another way of saying that German Euros are working at cross-purposes with US Dollars (and, to a lesser extent, British Pounds) in the sphere of aid for Afghanistan.
All such subsidies, regardless of their source, should be scrutinized, but from what I can tell, most of what the US is doing (besides terrorizing and killing people) is executing ill-intentioned social-engineering programs and and even more ill-intentioned narcotics racketeering. What countries like Germany (most likely who “US Allies” is referring to) are doing, it appears, is repairing the damage from decades past and current colonial war and state-sponsored vandalism. From Berlin’s perspective, this must be like watching someone dig potholes that you have to fill in for 18 years.
We spend our money on blowing things up and we expect other countries to spend their money repairing the things that we just broke – how long will that go on? Answer – not too damned long! Soon enough, they’ll figure out that the best solution is to keep us from blowing things up in the first place.