This is getting g ridiculous. We continue to kill and maim Afghans by our mistaken policies in their sovereign country while wasting billions of dollars and American lives on a misbegotten attempt to pacify the Afghan countryside.
There is a way out. Give the money we waste on military adventurism in Afghanistan directly to the Afghan people. No intermediaries. No development projects. Just give the money to the people and let them decide how to better their own lives.
There are 32 million Afghan men, women and children. We’re projected to spend over 36 billion US dollars on the war effort in Afghanistan this year alone. That’s over $1000 US dollars per Afghan citizen, man, woman and child. The per capita GDP of Afghanistan in 2008 was $700 US dollars. That is not per capita monetary income, but a measure of the overall productivity of the Afghan economy. Its way down near the bottom on the list of country’s per capita GDP. Real monetary income per capita is a fraction of that amount. Most of the Afghan people live in extended families. The size of such a family (husband, wife an average of 3 or more children, grandparents, maybe an uncle or some cousins) probably averages around 10 people. The income of such a familial unit is probably no greater than $1000 US per year.
Imagine if we gave such an extended family a lump sum of $10,000 US, the equivalent of what we spend on war this year in Afghanistan. The Afghan people by their current standards would be rich beyond imagination. They could rebuild their homes and farms, irrigate their land, buy equipment. They know better what they need to survive then we do. The Afghan economy would revive and thrive with a dramatic increase in local spending. Warlords and the Taliban would lose their influence nearly overnight.
Difficult to implement? Logistically impossible? Give me a break. And give peace a chance.