U.S. Is Feeding Afghan Corruption

It's not bad enough that American soldiers (not to mention innocent civilians) keep dying unnecessarily in Afghanistan in a war that has been fought for nearly nine years and accomplished absolutely nothing, and there is little hope of anything constructive being accomplished in the future. Now we learn that it is costing the United States at least $1 million per soldier each year that we continue the war.

Part of this cost is the ridiculously high prices we are paying for the supplies to continue the war, such as the cost of gasoline to keep our war vehicles moving. While the American people whine at paying nearly $3 a gallon (and would be shocked if it went up to $4 a gallon), the American government is paying $400 a gallon for that gas in Afghanistan. There are some corporations that are truly making a killing off the war in Afghanistan (and the one in Iraq).

It gets even worse than that though. Did you ever wonder why we continue to send money to supply and train the Afghani military and police and yet they never seem to get any better at their jobs? Did you ever wonder why we continue to send money to prop up the puppet government in Afghanistan and yet it still has no real authority outside of Kabul (and can't even guarantee security inside the capital). The answer to both questions is clear -- corruption.

Americans have known for a while now that the Afghan government is a nest of corruption, but I don't think they understand the extent of that corruption (financed by United States taxpayer dollars). Listen to what the German-language newspaper Der Spiegel has learned:

"Huge amounts of money [are] regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases.

According to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf. And, given the fact that Afghanistan’s total GDP amounts to the equivalent of $13.5 billion, there is no way that the funds involved in this exodus are merely the proceeds of legal business transactions…

It is clear that much more money is making its way out of Afghanistan through Kabul’s airport than is being officially declared and logged. For example, important politicians and businesspeople can often board planes from the airport’s special VIP area without being searched. And if customs officials do conduct a search and find a suitcase stuffed with millions of dollars in cash, people with powerful connections often step in to make sure that the luggage makes it out of the country with its owner — no questions asked. 'A couple phone calls are made,' General Jabarkhel says with frustration in his voice, 'and the person can carry on.'

A number of Afghan businesspeople have purchased expensive villas in Dubai, once only attractive as a golfer’s paradise. These include a brother and a cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of Karzai’s former vice presidents and the brother of Mohammad Qasim Fahim, one of the country’s two current vice presidents. Asking prices for the stylish, Roman-style houses built along the beaches of the man-made island Palm Jumeirah, for example, start at $2 million. Until just a few years ago, many of their current inhabitants were far from wealthy.

As the Washington Post has discovered, these properties are often only registered under the names of the individuals issuing the loans, such as Sherkhan Farnood, the founder and chairman of Kabul Bank, Afghanistan’s largest private bank, who was also a key supporter of President Karzai during his 2009 re-election campaign. Like many of his clients, Farnood now spends the majority of his time in Dubai. And among the 16 shareholders in his bank are Mahmoud Karzai, the president’s business-minded older brother, and Haseen Fahim, the brother of Afghan Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Most financial transactions in Afghanistan continue to be conducted through so-called “hawalas,” traditional Islamic money-transferring outfits based more on honor and good faith than receipts, a fact that makes it more or less impossible for Western corruption investigators to trace the flow of money."

If that doesn't make you mad, I don't know what will. While we think we're trying to save and rebuild a nation, these corrupt politicians and their families are building multi-million dollar bank accounts and hideaways in Dubai. They know they will be tossed out when we eventually leave someday, so instead of rebuilding their country and it's security forces they are stealing as much money as they can as fast as they can.

How long are we going to let American soldiers die to protect these thieves? When is enough going to be enough?

(The picture above is of the corrupt Afghan leader -- Hamid Karzai.)