According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction the large sums of money spent by the U. S. government on stabilizing Afghanistan since 2009 have largely been wasted. USA Today reports:
The damning report finds that much of the $4.7 billion spent on programs to stabilize areas cleared of insurgents has been largely wasted — some of it siphoned off by corrupt officials, some of it paying for projects that did more harm than good. All told, the U.S. government has appropriated about $126 billion to rebuild the country, most of it to train and equip security forces.
“The large sums of stabilization dollars the United States devoted to Afghanistan in search of quick gains often exacerbated conflicts, enabled corruption, and bolstered support for insurgents,†the report states.
One of the big problems was that success was measured in terms of inputs rather than in terms of outputs. That problem isn’t isolated to our efforts in Afghanistan.
On this subject during the occupation of Iraq, I strongly recommend Peter van Buren’s We Meant Well if anyone hasn’t read it.
Our whole premise was wrong from the beginning. We didn’t understand the culture. We didn’t belong there. We were not going to change the place into a western style democracy no mater how much we spent.
Steve
And we need to clearly see who we are, we are not Rome. We are not nearly brutal enough to impose our will on the unwilling. Our relations should be limited to trade, if beneficial to both parties. As to the damage done, allies who are vulnerable, bring them in, then don’t repeat the nation building mistake.