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April 17, 2019 Topic: Security Region: Middle East Blog Brand: Middle East Watch Tags: AfghanistanWarTroopsCorruptionKabulAmerica Can't Solve Afghanistan's Corruption ProblemsWashington tried to remake Kabul for eighteen years, but it is time to acknowledge the limits of U.S. power and to come home.by Jerrod A. LaberOn Monday, April 8, three U.S. soldiers and one contractor were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, bringing the total number of U.S. personnel killed there in 2019 to seven. For advocates of foreign policy restraint, every new American death represents the moral imperative for U.S. withdrawal from the region. To the Trump administration’s credit, U.S. envoys have been in discussions with the Taliban for months, seeking a possible end to the now almost eighteen-year-old war. But these efforts have been met largely with derision inside the D.C. Beltway. Representatives Jim Banks and Liz Cheney went so far as to introduce the “Ensuring a Secure Afghanistan Act†last week, to prevent a possible drawdown in Afghanistan if they are not satisfied with the details of any U.S.-Taliban deal.It is true that without U.S. support, Afghanistan would crumble, and, most likely, crumble fast. But as the latest report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) shows clearly, Washington’s nation-building project has failed. Nearly two decades of American investment has produced no enduring progress and in some cases—such as corruption—actually made things worse. More money, time, and precious life will not produce a secure and stable Afghanistan. The best path for the United States is to leave, ending the facade of state-building, and focusing solely on counterterrorism.According to SIGAR, the three most pressing threats in Afghanistan, as cataloged in their recent 2019 High Risk list, are widespread insecurity, endemic corruption, and an underdeveloped civil policing capability. The Afghan military is “constrained by capability challenges and depend on donor support . . . to fund their sustainment, equipment, infrastructure, and training costs.†Additionally, corruption and “threats to the rule of law persist despite anticorruption efforts by the Afghan government and donor nations.†Moreover, the U.S. Defense Department maintains that “corruption remains the top strategic threat to the legitimacy and success of the Afghan government.†Yet current Afghan police “sustainment costs are well beyond the Afghan government’s ability to fund and will require continued foreign assistance well into the future.â€Read more at: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/america-cant-solve-afghanistans-corruption-problems-52977
