subject: We Appear To Be Winning The Fight Against Corruption In Afghanistan [print this page] Those of you who follow my articles and blog know that what has probably been the biggest hindrance to peace in Afghanistan has been the widespread corruption found within the ranks of its government. President Obama has been working very diligently and hard with President Karzai to put an end to the corruption. Like many other things it has been easier said than done. Corruption has been the way of doing business in that country for quite a while (like every other country) but in Afghanistan it is the rule. The civilian population will be slow to trust and support a government which it knows is rife with corruption. The government must have the confidence of its people if it is to lead effictively. It can't rule by intimidation and fear as many other governments have done. Widespread corruption has done much to hinder the process of clearing out the terrorist activists and gaining control the rest of Afghanistan. Corrupt officials, troops, and police have contributed either directly or indirectly to the deaths of many NATO troops.
It is super critical to the process of securing Afghanistan that we put an end to this corruption. Drug use is rampant among the Afghan army and its police force. Attempts to improve this situation have met with little success. The Obama administration has attempted to provide greater incentives to the Afghan policemen and soldiers to step up their performance which have helped but have not been the total solution to the problem. We have even attempted to establish a super elite division of the Afghan police force but a large part of the force was found to be corrupt and using illegal drugs also.
The strategy of the troop surge is to run the Taliban out of the populated areas in the region, strengthen the government forces there, and then withdraw leaving the Afghans in charge, but the Afghans will not be able to maintain order and discipline if they dont have any discipline themselves. In recent incidents they have been guilty of shaking the civilian population down for their money and goods rather than protecting them. The civilian population will just flow towards the area of least resistance. So that if the Taliban treats them better they will cooperate with the Taliban. President Karzai desperately wants peace in his country and is going all out to bring Afghanistan together. He may have some success in his lifetime but it is a tall order to say the least. He may need to make the fight to end corruption his biggest project. There are many other problems which need his attention also but ending corruption may pay bigger dividends faster.
Remember that about ninety percent of the worlds opium supply comes from Afghanistan, so drug smuggling is the order of the day. I say this because the drug business removes just about every good reason that a person may have to fly straight. First of all poppy farmers are usually dirt poor and just looking for some way to feed their families so how can you tell them to stop growing poppies? The US government has offered some incentives to them to try to get them to grow other crops instead but just like any other plan this will take time to take hold.
The US is facing a giant that will be extremely difficult to conquer. It will take all of the diplomacy and ingenuity that we can possibly muster to figure out a way to overcome these obstacles. The long term problem is that if we cannot help the Afghan government to prop itself up and remain stable it will collapse back into anarchy. We will probably have to maintain a significant military posture in the area for a long time to come. Military Ring Express
