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Child Malnutrition Rises in Afghanistan as Obama Renews "Commitment" to Rebuild

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As the US continues to strenuously ignore and underfund the only development program in the country which works cheaply and effectively, the Afghan National Solidarity Program (NSP,) which is at arm's length from the Karzai government and which gets management help from the World Bank, and as it has instead wasted around $15 billion since 2001 on showcase projects that Afghans never asked for, using Washington-connected American contractors who take 40% or more in profit before the work ever begins, child malnutrition has edged up in the country from 54% in 2005 according to the World Bank to 60% according to Save the Children in a recent NBC News report. The grim statistic follows the recent freezing deaths of dozens of children under age five from the bitter cold in the squalid refugee camps in and around Kabul, the most secure area in the country.

The World Bank reports that 60% of Afghan children suffer from stunted growth.

In a report in the Fall of 2011, "Afghans are bitterly disappointed by broken promises" by the German media outlet DW, the author writes:

Ten years ago, Afghans were taken in by the promises made by the United States. They believed Washington when it said the military operation was not directed against them but against al Qaeda and the Taliban and that Mullah Omar's regime would be replaced by an elected government. After 20 years of war, they believed the promise that Afghanistan's reconstruction would bring security and well-being.

...

Now the Taliban are back on the scene and peace seems very far off. Many Afghans are baffled by the fact that the tens of thousands NATO-led troops have not been able to restore order and stability...Another thing people wonder about is why seven million Afghans have to suffer from hunger although billions of US dollars have been pumped into the reconstruction efforts...

The Agency Coordinating Body For Afghan Relief (ACBAR,) in a report by Oxfam's Matt Waldman, concluded in a 2008 report "Aid Effectiveness":

"just $15 billion in aid has so far been spent, of which it is estimated a staggering 40 percent has returned to donor countries in corporate profits and consultant salaries"

In the midst of the fall-out over the burning of a large number of Qurans at a US military base, the Obama administration issued a statement declaring that the American "commitment" to rebuilding Afghanistan continues, with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker saying, in an outlandishly titled, uncritically-reported AP write-up "US says it's steadfast in rebuilding Afghanistan":

"We have got to redouble our efforts. We've got to create a situation in which al-Qaida is not coming back."

Two-thirds to three quarters of Afghans still do not have access to safe drinking water, although these kinds of projects would be among the easiest to implement and would involve hiring large numbers of unemployed Afghans.  And so strong is the US "commitment" to help rebuild the country it has occupied for ten years that its support for an organization which runs 11 orphanages will be terminated at the end of this month, in a country with one of the highest number of war orphans in the world.  Now that's heart.

News Flash: The US is not and never has been concerned with rebuilding Afghanistan. Even the U.S. Special Inspector General for the Afghanistan Reconstruction has said of the National Solidarity Program (NSP):  

"We found that [the controls instituted by the NSP] provided reasonable assurance that NSP funds were used as intended."  

The NSP focuses on many small, basic infrastructure projects like irrigation, clearing the canals, clean water projects, and improving dirt roads.  This helps all other parts of the traditional economy of agriculture and small business.  Labor is provided by Afghans wherever possible.  

In the meantime $2 billion per WEEK in military hardware and military supplies crisscrosses the country by truck convoy, and the Pentagon pays insurgents hundreds of millions of dollars a year to let it through unmolested, thus making the Taliban stronger and enabling it to buy more weapons.  No wonder Afghans are mad.  

Rep. John Tierney's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs reports in "Warlord, Inc," that supply missions in Afghanistan consist of:

   "roughly 6,000 to 8,000 truck missions per month. The trucks carry food, supplies, fuel, ammunition, and even Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs)."

The Subcommittee writes:

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Ralph Lopez majored in Economics and Political Science at Yale University. He writes for Truth Out, Alternet, Consortium News, Op-Ed News, and other Internet media. He reported from Afghanistan in 2009 and produced a short documentary film on (more...)
 

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