No Troops, Then Little Aid to Afghanistan

A recent news article in the Chicago Tribune quotes a few U.S. officials saying that without the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan post December 2014 there is a very little chance of significant aid being sent to Afghanistan. The mistrust of the Afghan government stems from the extreme amount of corruption with both developmental and military aid dollars stolen by high-level Afghan officials (Karzai, of course, is the biggest thief). The presence of U.S. advisors and mentors would provide at least the chance that some of the aid money would be spent for the purpose allocated instead of ending up building an expensive Kabul villa or in some Afghan officials Dubai bank account. One would think that this would be a driving force to get the Kabul government to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement.