Everyone agrees there is corruption in Afghanistan. Not everyone agrees on what corruption is. As the three-day anti-corruption conference in Afghanistan winds down one thing is clear: there is a difference between the Western and the Afghan conceptions.
Many Westerners find the culture of nepotism here in Afghanistan appalling, and while it can indeed hinder the development of a meritocracy for the Afghans generally there is nothing abhorrent about hiring a close relative or friend purely on the basis of that personal relationship. Indeed, it is something on-the-whole laudable and to be expected (especially if it is you yourself and not your despised cousin who benefits). It is not ‘corrupt’.
On the other hand some of the international aid contracting practises which are perfectly legal in the West are considered ‘corrupt’ by Afghans because only a fraction of the budget ends up trickling down to those for whom it is ostensibly intended.
I initially wanted to rant more about such differences and thought this would become a much more cynical post. But judging by the very lively debates and concrete recommendations that the conference participants came up with (Karzai’s unhelpful defence of the Kabul mayor notwithstanding), I get the feeling Afghans know exactly what corrupt practices they want weeded out from their society and exactly how they want to go about doing it*. Let’s just hope the enthusiasm remains and is translated into more concrete steps at the London Conference.
* Yes Christian, I know that’s a gross generalisation based on a medium-ish sized sample of educated, English speaking Afghans, but please don’t hold it against me.
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I’ve always been interested in how “corruption” is defined in Afghanistan. Nepotism may be appalling, but its probably the best way to assemble a group of people you can trust, no? And the reason so little of that aid money gets to actually making things is probably because so much needs to be spent on security, translators, etc.
I have a fantasy of opening up an Islamic Engineering school in Afghanistan. Like a Yildiz Teknik-on-the-Kabul or something. I’ve always thought that building up the ability to get projects done would be a better use of money then paying for Americans to go over there to get projects done. But, as you point out, that’s just switching one set of “corruption” for another.
Here is how to get rid of corruption in Afghanistan.The most common form of it is bribery.Set up an undercover network,send these to get services from gov. offices such as licenses,passports,jobs,other services and etc.Those obstructing normal performance of their duties(ie,delaying tactics and refusal for no good reason) be identified and charged,tried in court and punished;if these trials are done in public and on TV so Afghans can see them for themselves and the guilty ones are sent to prison,then the Afghans will start to admire the US/NATO efforts in Afghanistan and they will get a big kick out of this public humiliation of savage Afghan officials and they will talk and laugh about those shameless gov. officials for years to come.Nothing straightens up the savage Afghan officials like public trials on TV and their conviction and punishment.The vast majority of Afghans would love to see these tormentors identified and punished and whoever does this will be remembered fondly for a long time to come.Even fifty years from now Afghans will recall how the Americans stopped the savage Afghan gov.officials and how the Americans made these hated figures to have respect for Afghan people and made them to behave like honest human beings instead of savages they have been.If US/NATO DID THIS,they can be certain to have achieved a good measure of success and the Afghans will remember them with a lot of admiration.
Yes not uninteresting ideas indeed. For further inspiration…
An Introduction to the Islamic Judiciary
http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/the-khilafah/judiciary/466-an-introduction-to-the-islamic-judiciary
The Evil of Craving for Wealth and Status
http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/concepts/islamic-culture/8278-the-evil-of-craving-for-wealth-and-status
Anyone who had a chance to “blend into” American imperial operations since WWII realizes that the American sense of obligation to PROTECT some poor “threatened” nation’s sovereignty and to ENHANCE its stability has become slave to corporate, political and military AMERICAN interests with AMERICAN individuals milking the American tax-cow while “little Americans” die at the front and pay-up in the rear. I can’t help feeling deep resentment against the Petraeus/ McChrystal “all is well or will be well if we invest more blood and treasure” peanut gallery telling us that Karzai Gov “failings” and Taliban “evils” are what our “oh so able commanders” are curbing. The Shanghai Accord that many misread as a “debating society” is a very peculiar hardening cement of mutual contradictions that is solidifying to ironically defend that same sense of national sovereignty in the face of corporate, military, political and careerist AMERICAN corruption that we pay about $1 trillion to protect. One thing gov/corporate American executives abroad have always told me they can do better than anyone else is “deceive” others at home and as well as themselves. Yet, Karzai, for better or worse is an Afghan who knows Afghan standards and can predict what people will think of him whatever he decides to do. A lot of Afghans, whatever their sins, know that they will live or die judged by the Afghan ways after we leave. By contrast, it is innocent well-meaning intel blind, language deaf and culture dumb American moms and dads that are forced to break their promise to their kids to be home for the holidays and to the Afghans to supply promised equipment because they have no idea what larcenous mediocrities command our nation’s operations in the so-called war on terror. After all, they intimidated Obama into the principle that things are very bad but more, much more, of the same is very good so they feel that their war “bonuses” will close to match the bonuses their fellow crooks are getting at year’s end on Wall Street. I would remind that one need not go too far into the weeds to note the criminality that constitutes our “freedom venture” into the Muslim World. Killing Muslims is good because it pays off well and you can’t make a living these days without killing people—afterall, we’re suffering 11% unemployment at home so the bonuses are very selective when not via official authority. The rest is nothing but hundreds of thousands of poor fools who still believe in America enough to trust their careerist commanders with their lives. What a shame. In the face of such outrage at OUR top it seems rather besides the point to talk about Afghan corruption as “our” presence there is principled in corrupt siphoning of tax dollars out of the sight of US domestic watch dogs. Again, killing pays…not for the poor patriots at the bottom of unit troops and command but those above who have to jog and do push-ups in the war zone not to get flabby. At least the Afghans know that they live and die by the will of God whether corrupt or pure as snow. Our people know that there’s always that last helicopter to their Swiss bank accounts. Merry Christmas killer Mr. Scrooge, you got to kill that Christmas “humbug” for a lot of brave soldier moms and dads.
Indeed one of the worst crimes of American imperial operations is the wholesale theft of paragraph breaks. The world is a poorer place because of that.
My struggle against Communism began in the JFK/LBJ years when idealism about Democracy and national independence was very real. Before that we loved Ike and thought Americans could do no wrong. But then we were worried about the Soviets soooo close. Of course, the killing of Diem for fear that he would screw up JFK’s re-election was a down point but it was still mixed in with idealism: sort of mixing in concern for future generations with can’t be helped screwing up the present one– THE ULTIMATE GOOD. Let us compare that with the Republican “globalism” to which I too was for a time committed. “Entrepreneurs,” America’s new gods that screwed up the whole country and the Western World….bigger crooks than the DoD “entrepreneurs” today drinking the blood of our mom and dad soldiers. In my day, any guy who escaped the draft to his 23rd birthday was home safe. Now, when I go over the list of casualties with tears in my eyes I see a lot of “age: 56.” That’s not a crook, that’s a patriot who gave his all. Can we say that about the scumbag Republicans (of which I was one) who call for President and SecDef kissing Petraeus/McChrystal derrieres?
The whole problem is volunteer army…people just don’t care about them, especially about Reservists who get all the crap equipment on the assumption that they can’t fight. And then how many SFs can we waste educating colonels and generals in COIN tactics? Are we not REALLY going to need them some day? By the way, since when is cheap oil “national security”? I sure would love to debate that one; as well as saving Afghanistan to run a pipeline through it. It’s as if: that’s OK, they like killing and they like dying. Our volunteer army was really tested only after 9/11 when a lot of patriots blindly signed up. So what are our troops doing there, coming in after the oil & pipeline boys? None of you deal with that. Rather a couple of tactical comments, a couple of names thrown in and the one upping of each other. But you never deal with what the hell are we sending intel blind, language deaf and culture dumb mom and dads there for? Why are we throwing money we need at home for corporate crooks to eat up in Afghanistan? Do any of you think much about Powell’s warning to be weary of the “anti-terrorism expert” proliferation, much like the anti-Communism professionalists” of old? Do any of you consider why we were rejected from observer status in the Shanghai Accord and the people we so lavishly finance are involved? Please, let’s discuss the level at which– from here– we can do something meaningful. After all, there are Beacon’s wonderful critiques on Tom Ricks’ bog for all this tactical stuff. Even in the height of Vietnam we were analyzing it strategically, not getting tangled in ephemeral tactical moments as if reminiscing.
Oh, by the way Bruno, as for paragraph breaks, I didn’t do it because I thought about space. But maybe I don’t know much about computers and it doesn’t matter. I can’t even type!!!!
The trouble with you– oops, us– Americans is that you– oops, we– were never occupied. Having lived under Communist and American occupation let me tell you that while the former is uncaring and brutal, the latter is uncaring and brutal. But when I saw my fellow Bucharest students tear down Ceausescu’s sense of arrogant power with a snap in his face of surprise that Romanian TV caught full-screen-face, I knew it was over. At that point people didn’t care anymore. They would use their fingernails against bullets. That’s what will end the Taliban days and nothing less. In the case of American occupation coming to an end I had over and over again seen it as a desperate blank stare in people’s eyes as the Americans literally sneaked out and left them to be eaten by totalitarian cannibals. The crowd would stand there, after pleading “take me with you, I want to go to America,” they finally gave up wondering: “what will happen to us now?” Yes, your—oops, our– “victims” who were so angry with you and so desperate for revenge, seem to see your—oops, our—departure…EVERY TIME I WITNESSED IT…as something that will only come after sun rise ceases, but when it does come, with a desperate sense of “now starts hell because the Americans are abandoning us.”
My point is that you should accept the “internal contradictions”– what Americans so elegantly call “cognitive dissonance”– of little people from little places that make your REAL efforts to liberate them from evil an impossible task. They have the skill of the defenseless and you have the impatience of the omnipotent. For COIN ops to succeed, both have to radically change: the occupied must become consistent in their thinking, thus courageous and appreciative (three traits that seem unapproachable to them, given how small they FEEL) and you have to be patient as you learn to communicate, give courage to hope. So far, you are stuck with the European inferiority and superiority complexes relative to you– something they can’t handle because their Cartesian education tells them that without a doubt they are hypocrites and cowards trying to feel both ways towards you while trying to justify it to themselves. Case in points are the recent German incident and the French one. Somehow both were argued as “c’est la faute des americains!” when they knew full-well that it is their inferiority complex speaking. Well, these are educated people but for Afghans logic is not an issue, survival speaks for itself as the ultimate virtue.
Guistozzi’s KORAN, KALSHNIKOV, AND LABTOP reads like a lessons learned that Petraues and McChrystal should be forced to memorize so they can recite it word for word or be demoted to buck-sergeant. When you compare this opus with what seems to have been a COIN manual that was only plagiarism of a certain sociologist’s book in most major sections (Nagel sounding like a fool trying to justify it on SWJ Blog), it would without doubt one-up any of the anthropologists claiming that the military are a bunch of idiots. I remember the same story with the Montagnares of Central Vietnam and a certain anthropologist. However there it was old Westy that was right as he reached the “crossover point” depleting Hanoi’s supplies and manpower through sheer perseverance, forcing Hanoi to resort to urban warfare that it lost. I wish Obama would have the courage to throw McChrystal the hell out of the Oval Office and give him a “gentleman’s “C” for his report while demanding: please find, get in touch with and bring to me Giustozzi and Dorronsoro to help me plot an exist strategy instead of these careerist egomaniac generals that dream of running against me in 2012 and reinstating the draft. Linking up with these two is the best thing anyone who cares about Afghans and our mom and dad soldiers, heroes suffering there, can do. I urge all to read Giustozzi’s most informative article in the latest RUSI JOURNAL: “ The Afghan National Army, Unwarranted Hope?” People like Exum who have the audacity to insist that they know things that Prof. Bacevich doesn’t know but these are secrets—secrecy the last resort of debate scoundrels (and CIA novices sitting in air conditioned offices in Saigon)—should read that so that they realize that if you’re going to convince the American people to hold out it will have to be with strategic arguments not card trick slights of the hand.
I conclude. Those who deem us invaders and occupiers dread our departure. But they have no confidence in our tactical make-it-up-as-you-go commanders so every time we kill people they deem it as snafus that add nothing but suffering to their future. This war will not be won by our clumsy military– the post-Vietnam mediocrities who insist that they are too smart to find real lessons in the Vietnam experience– but by those who can raise a literate and disciplined honest Afghan national police that catches bad guys for open trials and the application of the law through an able judicial system. The ANA we are pretending to erect is a fraud made as a conduit to corporate thievery of tax-payers’ money, for the Afghans could never afford to sustain the high calories army, the only kind that our “trainers” know. MY motto is: Afghan War for those who understand Afghanistan, not for those who see it as a cash cow or self-advancement to the presidency. Smarts are not kinetics but cognitive constructive ability. After their latest speeches about how we will have to lose so many people to a ragtag Taliban gang to win disqualifies Petraeus/McChrystal from the job even though they managed to intimidate Obama into another “surge”—that will “unravel” like the Iraq one—before we’re hitting the exit ramp in 18 months.
DE Teodoru,
Instead of a furious stream-of-consciousness poorly crafted to be biting and witty, it might help if you made clear and distinct points. Please stop trying to be inappropriately creative with phrases like “something that will only come after sun rise ceases” and “They have the skill of the defenseless and you have the impatience of the omnipotent.” I don’t think many of us are getting much out of your angry rants besides that you were probably a very bored English major in Bucharest who just loves to “Rage Poetic”.
And really, at the end of the day, if you think all the people involved can do no right, then just say so, rather than wasting 2000 words in the comments section of a 250 word post. You discourage more meaningful discussion.
Many of the comments made from friends agree and declare themselves fikrimide Let .. gene revealed that poverty is humanity itself ..
If you have had the misfortune to watch the current debate in the US on health care, noted the cost of the latest “surge” and or viewed the Copenhagen climate debacle you should come to the conclusion that Afghans are amateurs in the corruption business.
But don’t worry. Give the warlords Armani suits and an in-house legal team backed up by a PR firm and they’ll soon be up to US standards. They’ll go from stealing millions to billions in no time.
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