What We Stood For In Afghanistan -Cronyism, rampant corruption, a Ponzi scheme...

[kpete]

Sarah Chayes
The Ides of August
...............

Americans like to think of ourselves as having valiantly tried to bring democracy to Afghanistan. Afghans, so the narrative goes, just weren’t ready for it, or didn’t care enough about democracy to bother defending it. Or we’ll repeat the cliche that Afghans have always rejected foreign intervention; we’re just the latest in a long line.

I was there. Afghans did not reject us. They looked to us as exemplars of democracy and the rule of law. They thought that’s what we stood for.

And what did we stand for? What flourished on our watch? Cronyism, rampant corruption, a Ponzi scheme disguised as a banking system, designed by U.S. finance specialists during the very years that other U.S. finance specialists were incubating the crash of 2008. A government system where billionaires get to write the rules.

Is that American democracy?

Well…?

https://www.sarahchayes.org/post/the-ides-of-august

[2naSalit]

1. K&R!

Sarah Chayes is worth listening to. She quit her job as a reporter on NPR and started working with the people of Afghanistan, early on. She lived there for years and learned about the culture and the people, their needs and life expectations.

She is one of the most well informed Americans on the subject.