USAID: Understaffed And Underfunded In Afghanistan

GlobalPost:

BOSTON -- A shortage of auditors and investigators combined with unwieldy budgets on rushed schedules in an active war zone have severely undercut the U.S. Agency for International Development's ability to deliver nearly $10 billion in aid for development projects in Afghanistan.

Read the whole story: GlobalPost

Comments

[ContraryThinker]

04:40 AM on 12/12/2009

Just a reminder:

Estimates for total cost of the War on Terrorism run up to 3 trillion
Lets say 1 third of that is Afghanistan and two thirds Iraq

There are 25 million people in Afghanistan.
For the $1 Trillion we spent on war we could have literally given each and every person in that country $40,000.
Literally we could have bought them all a house and a car. Instead of purchasing a bomb for each person in that country, which is what we did with the money. It clearly would have worked better

If you think that that is silly and naive, then why are you even bothering with your pitiful $ billion? You know that isn't going to do anything. 10 billion to build it and 900 billion to destroy it? That math doesn't work out and we all know it

And BTW I feel ripped off for my 900 billion in destruction. I could have destroyed Afghanistan for a lot cheaper than that

[FebM]

09:57 AM on 12/12/2009

Hey are they hiring? America once prospered from war (WWII) .......

[jmpurser]

10:02 AM on 12/12/2009

We'd MUCH rather blow up the little brown people than educate, feed, or heal them.

[maxhardon]

12:57 AM on 12/12/2009

Your tax dollars at work -

KABUL — The United States Agency for International Development has opened an investigation into allegations that its funds for road and bridge construction in Afghanistan are ending up in the hands of the Taliban, through a protection racket for contractors.

[bascombe]

09:22 PM on 12/13/2009

in otherwords, blackwater/xe is not licensed to kill all local civilians via their own contract. too bad it's not Iraq, eh? there's nothing like a free-fire zone full of brown people?

[maxhardon]

12:54 AM on 12/12/2009

Why don't we send in the USAID to America?

[bajed]

01:59 PM on 12/13/2009

Because the United States doesn't live in a bubble. Its called globalization.

[kkrimmer]

06:06 PM on 12/11/2009

As usual, plenty of money for bombs... but you only kill with bombs not make friends, and friends is what we need, not enemies.

[bascombe]

09:19 PM on 12/13/2009

we're still living the 'unipolar' moment.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

06:02 PM on 12/11/2009

I've never understood why we can "afford" to spend far more on a war than it would cost to provide aid which would give the people there a job. With very few roads and so many buildings in ruins, a large portion of the population could work for years to rebuild the country. It's only fair we should rebuild the country since we played a major part in its destruction in previous decades with our proxy war there against the Soviet Union.

A large portion of the people fighting on either side are doing so because they can't find any other job, not because they want to.

[bascombe]

09:15 PM on 12/13/2009

the biggest ticket items are war materiel. look at the price of a tank vs a truck, a jet vs a sportscar, a bomber vs a house. a battleship vs an office tower. unless you're talking about a building in dubai, military objects are the most expensive in existence. thus the budget. the military will starve its own nation because they can maintain order through force, especially in this country now that we've militarized most urban police forces which I expect would be federally deputized as the national guards have been expended in Iraq/afghanistan/pakistan.

considering the PatRiot Act, I don't see that as far-fetched.

[davidwayneosedach]

03:22 PM on 12/11/2009

Afghanistan runs on bribes and corruption. At least half of that $10 billion AID money will go up in smoke!

[bascombe]

09:18 PM on 12/13/2009

if the CIA is handing out the money, is it still a bribe? or does it qualify as 'foreign investment'?

[cplKlyde]

01:05 PM on 12/11/2009

USAID is underfunded and understaffed everywhere.
http://www.americaabroadmedia.org/programs/view/id/137

[niko73]

12:17 PM on 12/11/2009

Perfect example of how international aid hurts the poor people of developing countries more than it helps. There is such a thing as “good aid,” but too much of what I see is “bad aid.” It supports corrupt elite, religious extremists, it is not sustainable, and relieves the duty of the government to provide for its people. USAID’s main goal is to push money. If they don’t push all they get, they don’t get as much next year. The idea is to spend, spend, spend, pretend that you’re doing good deeds so you can get even more money next year. This is what I call the International Aid Machine, and it self-perpetuates.

Unless something changes, we could shut down the USAID operation in Afghanistan and the country would be better for it.

niko
(Return Peace Corps Volunteer Kenya, M.A. International Development, Fulbright Scholar)

[bascombe]

09:16 PM on 12/13/2009

once the CIA is involved, does it qualify as aid?