"The poverty in Afghanistan is almost beyond imagining"

[midnight]

"Thirty Afghans die from TB every day; life expectancy is 43 years; per capita income is $426; only 13% have access to sanitary drinking water; fewer than one in four are literate; access to electricity is among the lowest in the world. Conditions for women are brutal. If Obama plans to address these issues, he's pretty much keeping it secret, points out world poverty expert Jeffrey Sachs. But without addressing them, can stepped-up American military involvement succeed? Or is it bound to fail?" http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00435

Is there a better way to spend money over in Afghanistan and at home than creating more hardships? Yes!

[LakeSamish706]

1. Your post is very sad... I hate this war and the escalation... A question that I have...

How much different were things prior to the NATO countries bombing Afghanistan in 2001?

[Uben]

3. Maybe a better question might be......

.....what could have been done with the funds that have been expended there if they were used differently? Instead of spending $120 billion on war, each man woman and child (pop. approx. 12,000,000)could have been given $10,000, which would have essentially made them all rich by Afghani measures! I'd say that would have been a pretty convincing bribe, and would have saved thousands of lives, I'm sure. What if?

[LakeSamish706]

4. I totally agree, and I wasn't trying to be callous.. Just curious as to what state

the country was in before Bush and company arrived on the scene and felt that they had to further devastate this already demoralized country.

[chill_wind]

9. $228 billion since 2001. It really is mind boggling. n/t

[JonQ]

11. How would that have been accomplished?

When the taliban was in control of the government? Any money sent would have gone to them, or perhaps been siphoned off to local warlords (not much better). Which would have been used to buy weapons and hire soldiers to keep them in power, they had no interest in making anyones lives better (excepting their own of course).

[Arctic Dave]

2. The part that really sucks is that a lot of third world countries aren't much better.

[BeFree]

5. Yep

Lots of places for AQ and Taliban-like forces to come home too.

War is not the answer.

[Doctor_J]

13. We'll be there soon

[JDPriestly]

6. So the solution is to impoverish Americans? That seems to be what

big business thinks.

[avaistheone1]

14. That really is the decision that is being made here

given the US is in such an unenviable positon with the increasing casualities at home of our own economy.

[chill_wind]

7. K & R. Here is more.

Statistics

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan_statistics.html



Afghanistan has been in a state of complex emergency for over the past twenty years. The country’s infrastructure and systems have been largely destroyed. An estimated 22 million Afghans, or 70% of the population, live in poverty and substandard conditions. 40% children less than three years old are underweight and 54% of under five are stunted. Over 100,000 people - most of them children and women - remain displaced by conflict and drought. The security situation in the country is deteriorating; more areas have fallen into active military operation zones between the Government/Coalition forces and Anti-Government Elements (AGE), which hampers humanitarian operations and access to affected populations. In 2007, approximately 40-50 per cent of the districts in the country were not accessible to UN missions for extended periods due to insecurity and movement restrictions. Southern provinces and some provinces in the west, east and southeast are most affected.


Funding appeals and humanitarian action (2008)
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan_31224.html


The literacy rate is no where near that of Iraq. How will our forces "train and stand up" this police/army for the populace in 18 months? How?

[roody]

8. Decriminalize drugs. Spend on improving the lives of Afghans.

No armaments.

[eridani]

10. Just buy all the opium directly

Afghanistan has a major shortage of morphine, which is a really sick irony. Maybe they could manufacture it there.

[Doctor_J]

12. However, if we bomb them consistantly for the next 4 years, that will help

right?