One of our carriers visited me today. He showed me documents that caused him concern. The copy that his driver presented to him was different than the one the military processed for payment. Funny thing, on his copies the fuel delivered was greater than on the government’s copies. It was pretty obvious to me but being polite in such circumstances takes the ability to hold a straight face. On his copies twos had been changed to sevens, zeros to nines, etc. I politely pointed this out but told him I would look into the issue further. I think it was all a ploy to fish for additional business. Near the end of the meeting he began asking about other types of transport jobs. Alas I only control fuel. This is such an odd business environment. It doesn’t help that US government contracting officers are so incompetent. Many of the problems we have here result from poorly written and poorly managed contracts. People think they can sit behind a desk in DC and write a relevant contract for Afghanistan. Sorry, but I’m here to tell you, it can’t be done! They need to make significant changes when contracting for this theater. I’ll throw in my two cents when I out brief a few months from now but I don’t honestly expect any of it to change. It’s not that I’m jaded, I’m just realistic. Well OK and a bit jaded!
The business environment here for importers necessarily involves the Afghan central government as well. I don’t have much direct interaction there but one of my buddies does. This may surprise the average American. A number of Afghan Gove officials are funded by USAID. That’s
correct kiddies your tax dollars pay to run the Afghan government. Now if all ran well that might be excusable. If all ran well. The various government ministries routinely work at cross purposes to each other. This hampers bringing military supplies into the country I can only imagine the impact on commercial goods. Many of these same USAID paid government “servants” also actively solicit bribes. Now that’s an interesting concept. The US Govt. pays them and in addition they try to solicit bribes from the US Govt. Come to Afghanistan, step through the looking glass!
As much as I love the Afghan people, I don’t hold out much hope for the broken, puppet government we have installed. I do feel the country still holds promise but not if politically modeled after modern America. The central governments of Afghanistan have always had limited reach. America’s ethnocentric view of the count
ry resulted in supporting a strong central government, central police force and strong military force. Not to piss in anyone’s popcorn but these concepts are foreign to Afghanistan. It’s time to suck it up and learn the way Afghanistan functions if we want to succeed here. The tribal regions of Pakistan have much more in common politically with Afghanistan than does America. We should be doing everything we can to bring peace at the village level and providing them the means to maintain that peace. Not an easy task. This country has typically existed as a loose confederation of villages, tribes and provinces. Gee, sounds a bit like the founding of the US doesn’t it? Strong states and a weak central government. I find it amusing that an avowedly conservative US Administration chose to ignore the conservative ideal of America (strong states weak central powers) when modeling their new and improved Afghanistan. Rather than building up the provinces they threw everything at the central government staffed by their own lackeys. Is it any wonder the government isn’t working here?
I am a military officer and businessman by training, not a politician, not a political scientist. So if you feel I shouldn’t be offering advice for the future of Afghanistan feel free to stop reading now.
This is a country of very tight local ties and very loose national ones. This is not America or Europe or Iraq. This is Afghanistan and needs an Afghan system. We (the West) need to quit assuming we know what is best for the world at large. We don’t! The solution here is to fix the infrastructure, work on education and encourage trade. Forget the government entirely! If we enable a working economy, a self sustaining economy, the people of Afghanistan will act like people everywhere. They will work and feed their families and worry about their children. Movement of goods encourages movement of ideas. Education encourages movement of ideas as well. Steer clear of teaching anything remotely religious. Teach Pashto, Dari, mathematics and economics, biology, environmental studies, etc. If the children are raised to recognize their inherent interdependence on one another the next generation will be less inclined to go to war. If the economy is functioning the government will ev
olve. Anyone recall how long America went without a functioning central government? There was a six year gap between the end of the American Revolution and start of Washington’s presidency. Did anyone have to force a government on us? My point is simple. Afghanistan is a wonderful land full of resources, amazingly resourceful people and a rich history spanning millennia. Afghanis given the opportunity to live in relative peace and pursue a livelihood will evolve their own government. It may not be what we envision but then it’s not our government to live under, is it!
The business environment here for importers necessarily involves the Afghan central government as well. I don’t have much direct interaction there but one of my buddies does. This may surprise the average American. A number of Afghan Gove officials are funded by USAID. That’s
correct kiddies your tax dollars pay to run the Afghan government. Now if all ran well that might be excusable. If all ran well. The various government ministries routinely work at cross purposes to each other. This hampers bringing military supplies into the country I can only imagine the impact on commercial goods. Many of these same USAID paid government “servants” also actively solicit bribes. Now that’s an interesting concept. The US Govt. pays them and in addition they try to solicit bribes from the US Govt. Come to Afghanistan, step through the looking glass!As much as I love the Afghan people, I don’t hold out much hope for the broken, puppet government we have installed. I do feel the country still holds promise but not if politically modeled after modern America. The central governments of Afghanistan have always had limited reach. America’s ethnocentric view of the count
ry resulted in supporting a strong central government, central police force and strong military force. Not to piss in anyone’s popcorn but these concepts are foreign to Afghanistan. It’s time to suck it up and learn the way Afghanistan functions if we want to succeed here. The tribal regions of Pakistan have much more in common politically with Afghanistan than does America. We should be doing everything we can to bring peace at the village level and providing them the means to maintain that peace. Not an easy task. This country has typically existed as a loose confederation of villages, tribes and provinces. Gee, sounds a bit like the founding of the US doesn’t it? Strong states and a weak central government. I find it amusing that an avowedly conservative US Administration chose to ignore the conservative ideal of America (strong states weak central powers) when modeling their new and improved Afghanistan. Rather than building up the provinces they threw everything at the central government staffed by their own lackeys. Is it any wonder the government isn’t working here?
I am a military officer and businessman by training, not a politician, not a political scientist. So if you feel I shouldn’t be offering advice for the future of Afghanistan feel free to stop reading now.
This is a country of very tight local ties and very loose national ones. This is not America or Europe or Iraq. This is Afghanistan and needs an Afghan system. We (the West) need to quit assuming we know what is best for the world at large. We don’t! The solution here is to fix the infrastructure, work on education and encourage trade. Forget the government entirely! If we enable a working economy, a self sustaining economy, the people of Afghanistan will act like people everywhere. They will work and feed their families and worry about their children. Movement of goods encourages movement of ideas. Education encourages movement of ideas as well. Steer clear of teaching anything remotely religious. Teach Pashto, Dari, mathematics and economics, biology, environmental studies, etc. If the children are raised to recognize their inherent interdependence on one another the next generation will be less inclined to go to war. If the economy is functioning the government will ev
olve. Anyone recall how long America went without a functioning central government? There was a six year gap between the end of the American Revolution and start of Washington’s presidency. Did anyone have to force a government on us? My point is simple. Afghanistan is a wonderful land full of resources, amazingly resourceful people and a rich history spanning millennia. Afghanis given the opportunity to live in relative peace and pursue a livelihood will evolve their own government. It may not be what we envision but then it’s not our government to live under, is it! 
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment