Some may recall when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan (Dec. 27, 1979), the goal was to establish a modern socialist state. After years of war and destruction, on February 15, 1989, the Soviets had to abandon their efforts when faced with a popular uprising. Then in 1992, the Mujahedeen forces, (supported surreptitiously by the U.S.), took power away from Mohammad Najibullah who was the Soviet backed Afghan leader. Continued turmoil followed until in 1996, Kabul fell to the Taliban, and Najibullah, who had stayed on in a UN compound, was killed and hung in the main square.
The U.S. involvement began after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack when President George Bush pursued Osama bin Laden who was reported to have terrorist training facilities in Afghanistan. The U.S. and NATO ousted the Taliban from control of Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai assumed the role of President. He has been re-elected to office twice.
The goal was to transform Afghanistan into a modern nation. Even though the rebuilding is an international effort, the U.S. alone had committed $51 billion during the years 2001 to 2010 with the prospects of billions more to come. The first order of business was to provide electricity to the more than 500,000 residents of Kabul, the country's largest city. Costs for the $100 million diesel-fueled power plant ballooned to $305 million as construction lagged a year behind schedule and now it often sits idle because the Afghans were able to import cheaper power from a neighboring country. Even so, the number of Afghans with access to electricity has only inched up from 6 percent in 2001 to an estimated 10 percent in 2010.
Troubles in Afghanistan
According to Associated Press articles (April 6, and July 19, 2010), The U.S. openly criticized poor decision making and government waste which angered Karzai who responded by declaring if criticism was not stopped he would abandon the political process and join the Taliban insurgency.
An Associated Press news item dated July 21, 2011, indicated U.S. Treasury officals were looking into Afghan financial dealings because "The U.S. had poured billions of aid dollars into a country plagued by corruption, insurgency and the narcotics trade." President Karzai countered by banning Treasury officials from his country's central bank. There was evidence that some funds expended were going to insurgents.
Meanwhile, U.S. contractors continue to benefit from a development program that essentially gives vendors a blank check, allowing them to reap millions of dollars in additional profits with no consequences for mistakes.
One of the campaign promises made by President Barack Obama was to get our troops out of the Middle East, and to do that a training program was instituted to create an Afghani military and police force.
In September, 2011, a Washington Post article by Joshua Partlow revealed that, between January and June, 24,590 soldiers had walked off the job which was even worse than the same time period in the previous year when 5,000 deserted. It was also noted that during the summer the existing force of 170,000 suffered an annualized desertion rate of 35% to harvest crops. There is, of course, a long-standing decree by President Karzai that protects Afghan army deserters from being punished. It should be noted the primary cash crop is the poppy which drives the dope trade.
To make matters worse, the McClatchy Newspapers (September 29, 2011) reported Afghanistan violence was up nearly 40 percent by the use of suicide bombs and improvised explosive devices. Adding to the turmoil was reports of men in Afghan uniforms were killing U.S. service members as well as a definitive AP news item (August 11, 2012) report that an Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing a meal with them.
In March of 2012, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was accused of sneaking off his base and creeping into houses in two nearby villages and opening fire on families as they slept. The U.S. subsequently paid $50,000 in compensation for each villager killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in this shooting rampage. Accordingly, how much did Afghanistan pay the families of U.S. Marines after Afghan police officers and uniformed military murdered U.S. personnel?
Incredibly, a Los Angeles Times article by Laura King pointed to the Afghanistan phenomenon of rape victims being imprisoned for a "moral crime" of having sex outside marriage even though it was against their will. Specifically, a 19-year-old woman named Gulnaz became pregnant as a result of rape and gave birth in prison. Hundreds of Afghan women are serving jail sentences in similar circumstances, but in this case President Karzai pardoned this particular victim provided she agreed to marry the man she said raped her. This jaw-dropping solution is clearly not compatible with the Western concept of justice.
It is interesting to note Sir Rodric Braithwaite, a former British ambassador to Moscow, commented in his book, "Afgantsy" the Soviet occupation "didn't transform Afghan society any more than we are going to."
Recently, The United States worked up a 24-page security pact which would extend America's military presence in Afghanistan for another 10 years as well as committing $-billions in various forms of aid. Incredibly President Karzai refused to sign the pact until after the Afghan presidential election in April (2014). His refusal could indicate the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is so unpopular that he would lose the election by signing the pact.
Of course, Secretary of State John Kerry is pushing for Karzai to sign this NATO agreement but in view of the U.S. national debt ($17+ trillion), this country probably should not be offering any additional aid to anyone and prudent financial policy would shut down our military involvement entirely. The U.S. currently spends more than $10 billion a year (not counting Afghanistan) to back up our military presence overseas with 70 percent of it going to Germany, Japan and South Korea and these financial figures do not include military personnel costs.
President Karzai, on the other hand, would appear to be a bit foolish to refuse this deal in view of recent Afghan history which has shown the moment the sponsoring military power leaves the area, the political leader left behind could very well be killed.
In any case, it appears two fools met - the U.S. cannot afford to continue the massive sacrifice of money & human lives and Karzai should have jumped at the chance to retain our troops - his life may very well depend on it.