At http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/business/13scene.html
There was a report detailing how limited the effort in rebuilding Afganistan has been. The claim here is that the donations to Afganistan has been substantially lower than other recent aid efforts. <quote> Here is the dismal record so far. Financial aid to Afghanistan, measured per capita, has been far lower than for any other nation recently during a period of rebuilding after a conflict. According to the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, aid to Afghanistan for 2002 and well into 2003 was only $67 annually for each man, woman and child. During its recovery from war, Kosovo received more than 10 times that - $814 a year per capita over several years. And Palestine received $219 a year per person in the second half of the 1990's, three times the amount for Afghanistan. Even Haiti received more aid per capita, some $74, in the three years of its post-conflict reconstruction. Rwanda received $114 a person in annual aid from 1994 to 1996. And those two countries are considered classic examples of neglect, said Barnett Rubin, who, with several colleagues, put together the center's study on Afghanistan. One consequence of the slow start in Afghanistan is that opium production and drug trafficking have easily become the most important sources of income. The United Nations estimates that a poppy farmer earns more than $2,500 a year, compared with $670 for other farmers. As a result, about a quarter of all Afghan farmland is devoted to poppy cultivation. In the meantime, security is increasingly difficult to maintain. As Afghanistan prepares for elections later this year, the American government reports that attacks by the Taliban have risen to their highest levels since its collapse more than two years ago. And many attacks are directed against aid workers. <end quote> It appears that Bush et. al. things that a military victory is 95% of the solution, with nation building being no more than icing on the cake. Unless these numbers are proven wrong, our policy in Afganistan is remarkably short sighted. From what I've seen, while better than Iraq, there is not much that indicates a good plan for a long term solution. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
