Afghanistan

Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:18 am

Half a trillion dollars of broken Afghan dreams
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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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Fri Sep 23, 2011 5:54 pm

Third US soldier pleads guilty to Afghan thrill kill by Andrew Winner

A third member of an alleged rogue US army unit in Afghanistan pleaded guilty in a plea deal over shock killings of local civilians that embarrassed the US army.

Private First Class Andrew Holmes was accused of being a member of a five-person "kill team" implicated in the slaying of three Afghans while stationed in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province in January 2010.

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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sun Sep 25, 2011 5:57 pm

US in 'disarray' in Afghanistan: Pakistani PM

Pakistan's prime minister has turned on the US over its allegations of links to the Haqqani terror network, saying the "blame game is self-defeating" and US policy in Afghanistan is in "disarray".

More then 35,000 Pakistanis have been killed in the fight against terrorism and many more injured, Gilani said, adding that the US was well aware of the arrests and killings of a large number of Al-Qaeda operatives by Pakistan.


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Re: Afghanistan

Postby kennynah » Mon Sep 26, 2011 3:52 am

have the thugs stripped and plundered the Afghans of their natural resources and wealth already?
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:48 pm

Afghanistan on brink after decade of war by Katherine Haddon

A decade of war costing thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars has left Afghanistan with a corrupt government, a widely criticised Western troop presence and only dim prospects for peace.

A decade on, high-rise buildings, shopping centres and modern technology have transformed parts of Kabul, but many Afghans now see the 140,000 foreign troops under US command as occupiers not liberators.

President Hamid Karzai, once hailed in Western capitals, has become one of the international community's harshest critics, particularly over civilian casualties, and his government is seen as corrupt and weak.

When the Taliban were ousted, they fled, badly weakened, to Pakistan
and violence was low for several years. But they rebuilt and 10 years later, 2011 is on track to be the deadliest year yet for civilians in Afghanistan.

With US-led foreign combat troops due to leave in 2014, some experts fear the country is sliding back towards the kind of civil war that killed and displaced thousands of people in 1992-96.

Research from Brown University says at least 33,877 people -- foreign and Afghan troops, civilians, insurgents and others -- have died overall.

So far, the conflict has cost the United States alone at least $444 billion.

Seventy foreign soldiers died in 2002. By 2008 the figure had risen to 295 and to 521 in 2009, according to the independent website iCasualties.org.

United States is preparing to withdraw 33,000 of its 100,000 troops by mid-2012. Britain and France will also lower troop levels by next year.

Local police and soldiers are due to number 352,000 by November 2012 under a huge programme costing $11.6 billion this year alone, but concerns over retention, capability, literacy and human rights standards remain.

The head of the training mission, US Lieutenant General William Caldwell, concedes that up to 3,000 international trainers may have to stay in Afghanistan until around 2020.

The United Nations has said violent incidents rose 39 percent in the first eight months of 2011 on the same period last year. ISAF disputes these figures.

Source: AFP Asian Edition

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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sat Oct 22, 2011 8:49 pm

Some Afghan Ministers Have Embezzled Millions: Anti-Graft Chief

KABUL (Reuters) - At least two Afghan cabinet ministers have embezzled millions of dollars of public money, the country's anti-graft chief said at the weekend, adding to Western pressure on President Hamid Karzai to clean up his government.

Donor countries say corruption in Karzai's administration is endemic, and a fundamental threat to their efforts to stabilize the country ahead of the end-2014 deadline for foreign combat troops to quit the country, having handed security responsibilities to Afghan institutions.

Billions of dollars in foreign aid have flowed into the country since a U.S.-led military operation threw the Taliban out of government 10 years ago, but the cash has paid for only limited infrastructure and development work, while violence is at its worst since 2001.

"There are former ministers too, but two or three current cabinet ministers have embezzled millions of dollars," said Azizullah Ludin, a Karzai appointee who heads the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption, speaking in his Kabul home.

Ludin said he had sent the cases to the Attorney General's office which will decide whether or not to prosecute, but he did not name the ministers involved or give details.


Source: Reuters US Online Report World News

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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sat Nov 05, 2011 7:29 am

General Relieved of Command Over Karzai Remarks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major General Peter Fuller, a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was relieved of his duties Friday after making comments critical of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a senior U.S. defense official said.

Politico reported Fuller was sharply critical of Karzai during an interview, especially over a recent remark that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if the United States invaded its territory.

It quoted Fuller as saying Afghanistan did not recognize the sacrifice in "treasure and blood" the United States was making for its security.

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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:53 am

US Army Sergeant Guilty of Murdering Afghan Civilians

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) - A U.S. Army sergeant was convicted by court-martial on Thursday of murdering unarmed civilians and cutting fingers from their corpses as ringleader of a rogue platoon in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province.

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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:55 pm

Does US$12b yearly in training cost sounds reasonable ?

Afghan $12 billion training cost will have to be shared by John Irish

PARIS (Reuters) - World powers must share the cost of training Afghan security forces once foreign troops leave in 2014 because the United States cannot be expected to continue paying about $12 billion a year, French diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.

NATO is racing against the clock to train Afghanistan's police and army forces, expected to reach 350,000-strong in order to take over fighting an increasingly violent war.

The United States poured in a record amount, near $12 billion between October 2010 and September 2011, to train and equip Afghanistan's security forces.

Almost as much cash, some $11 billion, is planned for the year through September 2012.

France spends about 500 million euros ($668 million) a year on its Afghan operations. The objective is to cut the number of Afghan troops being trained to about 230,000 by 2017, which would eventually reduce the annual bill to about $3-$4 billion.

More than 2,500 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began, with 76 French soldiers having been killed since France joined the Afghanistan operations 10 years ago.

Source: Reuters US Online Report World News

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Re: Afghanistan

Postby kennynah » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:18 pm

winston wrote:General Relieved of Command Over Karzai Remarks

the sacrifice in "treasure and blood" the United States was making for its security.


want to bluff 3 year olds ah :lol:
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