Western countries, especially the United States and Great Britain, have pumped billions into Afghanistan in recent years, but they have achieved the opposite of what they wanted. They wanted to build a new society, but instead, with a lot of money, they only promoted corruption, which became a hotbed for the return of the Taliban. They spent millions on schools that collapsed or didn't have enough benches. Aid supplies often ended up on the estates of warlords and mafia leaders, which only increased poverty.

Before the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan, Western countries tried many times to improve the quality of life of the local people and build a new society. Because of this, countless amounts of money were pumped into the country, which was simply a waste, writes the Daily Mail .

The Tuscan goats

Organized by the Pentagon, nine Tuscan goats were flown to Afghanistan to boost the local cashmere industry and create thousands of jobs. 4.4 million pounds, or nearly HUF 2 billion, were earmarked for the program.

These goats were mated with local animals to increase quality. However, the Tuscan goats could not stand the conditions in Afghanistan, several animals got sick, they were kept in too small a place, and with the high feed prices, the business was not profitable, and the Afghan partner stopped the business. The program shamefully died quietly after a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

After that, the authorities could not even say what happened to the Italian goats, they may have been eaten.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who championed the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, called it his duty to rebuild Afghanistan, but apart from some progress in education, women and welfare, foreign interventions have mostly only fostered corruption and thus the return of the Taliban. .

The waste was simply staggering

The money was spent on ghost schools, phantom military units, tragicomic and amateur anti-narcotics operations, and billion-dollar construction and fuel frauds.

Local US diplomats reported to Washington that an Afghan vice president had flown to Dubai with £38m in cash, and that drug dealers and corrupt officials were smuggling £170m a week out of a from a country where the average income is barely 430 pounds, i.e. 180 thousand forints - per year.

All of this shows the impact of pumping a lot of aid into a conflict-ridden country. More than a decade ago, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said that corruption was destroying efforts to create a new democracy. It is the Taliban's number one recruiting tool.

They recruited little boys

The UN has warned for more than a decade that Afghan security forces are recruiting boys. Last year, the US State Department acknowledged that there was still a risk that high-ranking officials were holding boys as sex slaves in Afghanistan. Despite this, they were never prosecuted.

In the first years after 2001, the US budget available for civilian purposes was relatively small, since most of the money was spent on suppressing terrorism. The United States promised to build or renovate 1,000 schools and clinics by the end of 2004, but has achieved less than a tenth of that. Then the money taps were opened because "nation building" became the key word.

There were many absurd investments, such as when they spent 32 million pounds, i.e. 13.5 billion forints, on a natural gas filling station, which is 140 times more than the cost of building a gas well in neighboring Pakistan. After construction, the people responsible for the project realized that converting the cars to gas costs more than the average annual income, so no Afghan could use the gas well.

Colonel Christopher Kolenda, a US military adviser, said that Afghanistan had turned from a democracy to a kleptocracy by 2006. Those who wanted to become politicians paid large sums of money to corrupt parties and leaders for the position, and then the bribes were stolen back from aid programs or from the illegal sale of uniforms and ammunition, but politicians were also happy to engage in drug trafficking and kidnapping.

Knowing this, it is no wonder that the British action against poppy cultivation worth 6.6 billion pounds, i.e. 2800 billion forints, also failed. 9 tons of poppy cocoons were found in the office of a local governor participating in the anti-opium program. After he was fired, he joined the Taliban with all 3,000 of his men.

By 2010, the level of corruption in the country could already be clearly seen, despite the fact that Western countries supported it with a lot of money. In two decades, the USA spent almost a trillion dollars, and Great Britain 30 billion pounds, of which 3.3 billion on aid, in a country of 38 million inhabitants. If all the international aid spent had simply been distributed among the Afghans, every citizen would have been an instant millionaire. Instead, the number of poor people in an already poor country has increased. A bank in Kabul made "loans" to ministers, officials and military leaders through a web of shell companies, amounting to 12 percent of the country's annual GDP.

The bank also spent £117m on 35 luxury villas in Dubai's Palm Jumeirah island complex, used for VIP entertainment.

A lot of money only helped corruption

Three years ago, the reconstruction inspectorate showed that of the 38 billion pounds spent on reconstruction projects, 11.4 billion pounds, more than HUF 4,700 billion, were stolen, wasted or lost.

Schools without desks

They began to build many schools on the Western model, only five times more expensive than elsewhere. In the mountainous regions, normal heavy roof structures could not be installed on schools, and the lighter ones collapsed in winter due to heavy snowfall. The United States spent £800 million on these schools, yet half of them did not have enough desks or chairs. People who didn't even exist received support, teachers falsified rosters.

A power station cost £246 million, ten times more than planned, and then delivered less than one percent of the promised capacity because there was no money to run it. Even the £62m loan for the hotel opposite the US embassy has disappeared.

Gert Berthold, an accountant who helped analyze a multibillion-pound contract, concluded that four out of every ten dollars ended up in the pockets of corrupt officials, gangsters or insurgents.

And the end result is known: the Democratic American President, Joe Biden, who is on the verge of mental breakdown, - to put it bluntly - completely foolishly withdraws from Afghanistan. Taliban terrorists immediately started street executions and manhunts. It is expected that 5 million Afghans will leave for Europe, migrants are trying to flood Europe again. And Brussels is again talking about mandatory quotas.

Source: origo.hu

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