LONG AND
WINDING ROADS
HUFFINGTON
10.14.12
MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/GETTYIMAGES
President Hamid Karzai cuts the ribbon during the inauguration of a hydroelectric power plant north of Kabul,
one of the five development projects funded by the Afghan government.
Hundreds of miles of new highways crisscross the nation, including a $2 billion
Ring Road that forms an essential lifeline
connecting Afghanistan’s major cities.
Infant mortality rates have dropped, and
the average life expectancy is up nearly
20 years. Millions of girls now study at
hundreds of newly constructed schools,
and 3G cell phone service has arrived in
the major cities. (Residents of Kabul still
remember having to drive to Pakistan to
make international calls before 2001.)
But as researchers and journalists
began to notice, the influx of funds
also exacerbated some of Afghanistan’s
worst problems. Afghanistan’s weak
economy couldn’t handle the
vast sums of money — in one district
in the South, Nawa, U.S. development
funding amounted to $400 for every
man, woman and child living there.
Afghanistan’s per capita income is
only $300. The result was often a
spike in corruption, and other unforeseen consequences.
One of the most withering examples
of these side effects was an agriculture
project run by USAID. Started around
the time of the surge, the plan had been
to spend $150 million on an obscure
agriculture and employment program in
Helmand and Kandahar. But, as Chandrasekaran writes, when Holbrooke
heard about it, his response was quick
and unequivocal: “Double it.”