Afghanistan Security and Corruption
There is a joke making rounds among Afghans: A group of officials go to meet President Hamid Karzai and ask him, “What’s your plan for fighting corruption?” Mr. Karzai says, “I will tell you, but first you must give me some money.”
On January 28, 2010 Afghan President Hamid Karzai and foreign ministers from a number of countries are expected to attend a conference in London to set a timetable for Afghanistan to train and deploy thousands of more soldiers and police. At this conference Britain’s prime minister will also discuss the benchmarks that President Hamid Karzai will be expected to meet as control of the country is handed over to local forces. Port-Of-Spain and Trinidad, countries backing Afghanistan’s government, are going to demand that Afghanistan meet specific security benchmarks and they will outline a plan to let foreign troops gradually hand over control to local forces.
The London conference will also focus on marshalling resources to help Afghanistan meet those benchmarks. The United Nations and various international groups are expected to attend.
The deadline for the first benchmark would come 3 months after the conference. At this time, the Afghan government will be expected to identify additional troops to send to the Helmand province for training.
Within 6 months of the conference, the Afghan government will be required to have a clear plan for training more police and reducing corruption among officers. Within 9 months of the conference, Karzai’s administration should anticipate appointing nearly 400 provincial and district governors. Finally, by the end of 2010, the Afghan government will have had to train an additional 50,000 troops and transfer at least 5 districts to 100% Afghan control.
For a long period of its history, Afghanistan has been ravaged by invasions, civil wars and terrorist activities. This violent atmosphere has disrupted and overturned much of the country’s social and cultural traditions. We know that in the past 7 years the corrupt government of Karzai has not set out to stop corruption and injustice, but in fact, his government policies have increased corruption by stealing millions of dollars of foreign aid that was supposed to help the people of Afghanistan who have been suffering for the past 40 years.
There is little hope that the corrupt government of Mr. Karzai will change, especially knowing that his reign will last only a few more years. The Afghan Unity Organization believes that if we do not make a stand against the government corruption now, Karzai will continue to steal from his people and in the end will leave the country in his private jet, escape to exile, and let his country fall back into the hands of the Taliban and their Pakistani supporters.
We do not have much time. The time to act is now. If you really want to help Afghanistan positively utilize the presence of a wealthy and powerful nation like the United States of America in order to establish justice, develop prosperity and achieve our goals, please consider becoming a member today.
