VOA: Washington's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the U.S. has provided more than $104 billion to rebuild Afghanistan -- more money than the United States has spent on reconstruction for any one country in history.
| When we finished rebuilding Japan we had, well, Japan. First-world and peaceful. What did we get for rebuilding Afghanistan besides green-on-blue murder? |
But John Sopko said despite the massive investment, corruption and the narcotics trade are flourishing, and Afghanistan is unable to pay for and maintain projects the U.S. has started.
"The bottom line," Sopko said Friday in remarks at Georgetown University, "it appears we've created a government that the Afghans simply cannot afford."
The US and international donors fund more than 60 percent of Afghanistan's national budget. Even as the deadline for withdrawing all international combat troops from the country nears, Congress has appropriated $16 billion in additional reconstruction money.
Sopko said the United States so far has failed to effectively deal with corruption in Afghanistan. |