Group items tagged

""I've often worried that the lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan - and especially Afghanistan - is that we don't know how to do foreign aid, and therefore we shouldn't continue to provide aid at the levels we have been," said Ms. Wadhams of the Center for American Progress. "

I detailed aid failure in "Funding the Enemy."

"The Afghan central bank's efforts to curb the exodus of money abroad are bearing fruit...The money flow-part of it suspected by U.S. and Afghan officials to be stolen foreign aid and proceeds from the drug trade-undermines the country's economy just as foreign forces depart. The cash flight also raises Western concerns about Afghanistan, already the source of most of the world's illicit opiates, becoming a global money-laundering center. "

"From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 70 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers."

"There is no doubt that successful peace talks would be the best possible outcome of the Afghan conflict for everyone involved. History is not, however, filled with best possible outcomes. Far too often, the parties involved in peace talks continue to pursue their own interests in any way they can and peace talks become little more than a cover for prolonged struggled or become a weapon in the hands of the most skilled side."

"Seeking to break an impasse on a broader strategic arrangement, the United States agreed on Friday to greatly accelerate its handover of detainees to Afghan government control on but will retain a veto over which ones can be released, American officials said. "