Manipal, India —
Those familiar with the situation on the ground in Afghanistan are aware that
only around 17 percent of the money spent in that unfortunate country is in the
control of President Hamid Karzai’s "free government of independent
Afghanistan."
The remaining 83
percent is, directly or via proxies, disbursed in accordance with instructions
given by one or the other NATO country, or NATO’s loyal partner, the United
Nations, whose hand-picked staff in Afghanistan keeps in close touch with
"their" embassies and military establishments.
Local officials
are aware of the way in which tenders and requests for supplies have been
manipulated to ensure that they are directed toward countries favored by NATO
decision-makers rather than the most cost-effective source.
Bloated salaries
and allowances, as well as logistics costs similar to the levels of Halliburton
– a U.S.-based provider of products and services to the energy industry – form
part of the mosaic of reasons why NATO is so loathed by the people it claims to
have liberated.
However, not a
single international media outlet focuses on the misdirection of resources by
NATO, preferring to focus their ire on the measly proportion of total
expenditure under Karzai's control, as do notables like Britain’s Prime
Minister Gordon Brown, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President
Barack Obama.
