Afghanistan Corruption Fostered by U.S., Pentagon Found
The U.S. government created an environment that fostered corruption in Afghanistan by supporting warlords, relying on private trucking contracts and providing billions of dollars in aid, according to a previously undisclosed Pentagon report.
Corruption directly threatens the viability and legitimacy of the Afghan state after a large-scale culture of impunity took hold, analysts for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a 65-page assessment obtained by Bloomberg News. American forces dependent on Afghanistan-based trucking companies found themselves trapped in a warlord protection racket, according to the report dated Feb. 28.
The Afghan war has cost 2,314 Americans their lives and wounded 19,701 as of April 21, and the report threatens to undercut any remaining support for the dwindling mission from lawmakers, as well as taxpayers and U.S. allies whove spent billions to support the Afghan government. The war has cost the U.S. more than $710 billion since 2001, according to the National Priorities Project, which studies federal spending.
As the Obama administration withdraws the last U.S. combat forces by the end of this year, allies may use the report as a benchmark for assessing Afghanistan officials promises to crack down, or whether fighting corruption is a lost cause.
The necessary preconditions for combating corruption did not exist due to delayed understanding of Afghan corruption, decreasing levels of physical security, lack of political will on the part of both the international community and the Afghan government and a lack of popular pressure, the Pentagon analysts found. The U.S.-led coalition was slow to understand the integrated and pervasive threat corruption posed to their mission.
Pentagon officials previously have acknowledged the effects of corruption in Afghanistan at all levels of its government and military. The issue has been cited in the Pentagons biannual Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan.
The newly disclosed assessment by the Joint and Coalition Operational Analysis division of the Joint Staff provides a more candid assessment of the underlying causes, including the role of U.S. strategy. It was commissioned last year by Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, the commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan
John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, referred to the report in a March 20 speech, praising Dunford for requesting an assessment that pulls no punches.
The assessment is based on a review of more than 500 documents, including many from Sopkos office, and interviews with 66 people, including 11 senior military officers.
The assessment found that the initial U.S. focus in late 2001 on defeating the Taliban and al-Qaeda created mutually dependent relationships that empowered warlords, expanded their opportunities for financial gain and impeded later efforts to counter corruption.
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Afghanistan Corruption Fostered by U.S., Pentagon Found