INFOGRAPHIC BY TIM WALLACE/HUFFINGTON. SOURCES: TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, SIGAR, USAID, U.N. OFFICE OF DRUG CONTROL, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, OXFAM
INTERNATIONAL;PHOTOS: BAY ISMOYO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES (POPPY BUDS); QAIS USYAN/AFP/GETTYIMAGES (STUDENTS)
The Splurge
Over the past 10 years, the U.S. has
spent nearly $90 billion on relief
and reconstruction in Afghanistan,
according to the Special Inspector
General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Here’s a breakdown of where
the funds went, and some of the
sorry results of that effort.
HUMANITARIAN AID
$2.37 Billion
There are now more than 8 million children
enrolled in schools (up from just 900,000
in the 1990s), and -- for the first time -more than a third of them are girls.
COUNTER-NARCOTICS EFFORTS
$6 Billion
Afghanistan still exports nearly 90 percent of
the world's opium, the raw material for heroin,
according to the latest U.N. figures.
OVERSIGHT & OPERATIONS
$6.62 Billion
GOVERNANCE & DEPLOYMENT
$22.34 Billion
According to Transparency International,
only Myanmar, North Korea, and Somalia
rank worse than Afghanistan for corruption.
Total: $89 .48 B
Waste, overhead and other extraneous
expenses have taken their toll on the financial
assistance that has poured into the country.
One 2009 study by Oxfam International
estimated that as much as 40 percent of all
foreign aid was actually spent back in the
donor's home country. Another assessment,
by a former Pentagon inspector general,
suggested that just 15 percent of
contributions ever made it to Afghanistan.
SECURITY
$52.15 Billion
Suicide bombings still plague major cities,
and a recent Pentagon report found no
change in the number of Taliban attacks
after three years of the costly surge.