Critics of Afghanistan need to look in mirror
PakistanPal
PARIS -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swept into Kabul last
Thursday to rain on Afghan President Hamid Karzai's second-term
inauguration parade.
Clinton commanded Karzai reduce rampant corruption in Afghanistan so
Washington could justify sending more troops. She is the former first
lady of Arkansas, a state acclaimed for high ethics and good
governance.
Perhaps she brought election monitors from Chicago, where the dead
rise to vote for the Democratic machine. From Ohio, where funny voting
machines helped George Bush win re-election or from those bastions of
Athenian democracy, New Jersey and Florida. They have so much to teach
delinquent Afghans.
Afghanistan is corrupt, like all third world nations, but compared to
his western critics, poor Hamid Karzai is a mere beggar in the Kabul
bazaar.
Take Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, who thundered at Karzai
to root out corruption. It was Britain that gave rise to the
delightful synonym for bribery, "the white man's handshake."
Three years ago, Brown and former boss Tony Blair quashed Britain's
biggest ever criminal investigation by its Serious Fraud Office into
accusations the arms firm EADS paid some $3.5 billion in secret
kickbacks to high Saudi officials. The EU rebuked Britain for its
"tolerance of corruption."
France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, also blasted Karzai over
corruption. This right after Sarko quashed a judicial investigation of
three thieving but useful African dictators who had stashed away
billions of swag in France.
Next, Transparency International, a respected NGO monitoring state
corruption, published its annual honesty survey.
New Zealand was named the world's least corrupt nation. Canada was
ranked eighth most honest and least corrupt nation in the western
hemisphere. Hats off to Canada.
Embarrassingly, the United States ranked a miserable 19th. The report
noted, "the U.S. Congress is most affected by corruption." Mark Twain
called Congress, "America's native criminal class."
Western Europe and Japan were way ahead of the U.S. America's ally
Israel ranked a sorry 32nd. Other U.S.-Mideast allies had awful
scores, the Gulf emirates excepted.
An important Los Angeles Times investigation reports hundreds of
millions of dollars, a full third of the CIA's foreign budget, goes to
payoffs to Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, and politicians.
American "black" programs deliver more tens of millions to Pakistan's
ruling Peoples Party and leader, Asif Zardari, known to all Pakistanis
as "Mr. 10%."
Zardari has been dogged for decades by corruption charges. He denies
them and claims they are all politically motivated.
The U.S. has given Pakistan more than $15 billion over the past eight
years to support the Afghan War, not counting huge bounties for
capturing or killing suspected enemies.
Some estimates say $10 billion delivered to Iraq's U.S.-installed
regime are missing. American "contractors" and large corporations in
Iraq are accused of gargantuan fraud. Pallets of U.S. $100-dollar
bills vanished into thin air. And on it goes.
Ironically, across the Muslim world, the same western powers scourging
Karzai are seen as major sources of corruption, keeping a repressive
regime in power by buying dictators, generals and politicians.
Many Afghans support the Taliban because it is seen as an enemy of
corruption and an enforcer of justice, however harsh.
The Transparency International report finds, to no surprise, that
places like Somalia, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the world's most
corrupt nations. But it must be remembered that citizens of these
benighted nations pay no income taxes. So each government official
levies his own little personal taxes. What we call corruption is
inevitable.
President Karzai will of course establish an anti-corruption
commission. Some big turbans will be prosecuted to please Washington.
But this charade will fool no one but U.S. voters.
Most Afghans see Karzai as a U.S. puppet. But maybe the exasperated
puppet will turn on his string-pullers, open peace talks with the
Taliban and demand the U.S. pull its occupation army out of
Afghanistan. India is said to be waiting to take over the care and
feeding of the Karzai regime.
Article Source : http://www.edmontonsun.com/comment/columnists/eric_margolis/2009/11/22/11865191-sun.html