by Emma Graham-Harrison
The rivers of cash that have flooded through Afghanistan have left many wondering why they still live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and questioning where it went.
For the nearly $450 billion Congress estimates the U.S. alone has spent waging war there, every Afghan man, woman and child could have been handed $15,000. That sum is 10 years' earnings for an average Afghan, according to U.N. estimates.
Life expectancy is under 45 years, and around a quarter of children don't even live to see their fifth birthday. Even for those who survive, expectations are low.
Just one in four adults can read or write and, while unemployment is hard to measure in a rural country beset by an insurgency, it is believed to run as high as 40 percent.
Corruption is rampant, violence is spreading fast even in once-peaceful areas, and every month an average of over 200 civilians die in the conflict.
Graft costs Afghans $2.5 billion a year, according to U.N. estimates; Transparency International rated it the world's third most corrupt country, behind only Myanmar and Somalia.
There is a common perception that Western forces seeking quick results have been used by commanders to settle personal scores, or by given false tips by informers seeking payment.
"They have killed and detained many innocent people; they raided and searched ordinary people's houses based on wrong intelligence," said Afghan political analyst Waheed Mojda.
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