Afghanistan, corruption and Karzai

http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-02-200913.html



Afghanistan, corruption and Karzai
by Brian Cloughley
Sep 20, '13

~snip~

None of this can be excused, of course, but in Afghanistan corruption has achieved an art form and is probably one of the gravest problems the country has to face. It starts right at the top. In April, the New York Times reported that, "For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan's president - courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency. All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the CIA to the office of President Hamid Karzai ... An American official said 'The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan [is] the United States'."

Now that's pretty blunt, but perhaps just this once the US is not entirely to blame for the shambles in a country it invaded. The CIA and other foreign organizations certainly helped, but the final responsibility for corruption throughout Afghanistan rests with Afghans themselves.

The head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, Jean Luc Lemahieu, said in February that "The bribes that Afghan citizens paid in 2012 equal double Afghanistan's domestic revenue." This revelation attracted no condemnatory reaction from President Karzai or any other influential Afghan, which is not surprising because he and many members of his government and officialdom are the main benefactors from the sleaze that swamps their country.

Karzai's character was well described by US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry in a leaked cable in which he wrote of "a paranoid and weak individual unfamiliar with the basics of nation-building". That sums him up very well. His posturing on the world stage has been as unimpressive as it has been counterproductive - and his August visit to Pakistan was both.