What is happening, John, is that they are rebuilding the country themselves, the only way it can really take place. No "Aid" money, to be split between Afghan "Swiss Bank" accounts and American "Social Service" Bureaucrats.
Sorry, but this just isn't real. I don't know what the GNP of Afghanistan is - I doubt that anybody knows - but I'd bet that per capita it's right down at the bottom, at par with the worst in Africa. No industry of any kind: everything manufactured has to be imported. No source of foreign exchange, other than opium, and not much of that money is going to buy cement or water pipes. Just feeding people until agricultural production is restored and installing the basic infrastructure to make economic activity possible will require huge foreign assistance. If you want to set up a rudimentary educational system, health care, etc., you need much more.
I'm no big fan of the aid industry, but in Afghanistan, if nobody outside is paying for it, it's not happening.
If it's true that there was no line in the budget for aid to Afghanistan, it's either an oversight of really staggering proportions or an open declaration that we've lost interest and are ditching the Afghans yet again. Either way, an appalling blunder.
Speaking of the budget, what do you think of that deficit? I have no problem with cutting taxes, but cutting taxes without proportional spending cuts is just plain irresponsible. |
