"For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency. All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader."I was assured that the Nigerian oil minister gig was a dead-solid moneymaker, better than Amway, even.
Man, I have GOT to give my financial advisor a piece of my mind...I feel like I missed Microsoft at $1.28 a share.
Anybody here know where I can learn Dari in six weeks and find a marriagable Karzai niece..?
I read the story when it first hit the news, and simply yawned. It's really getting harder and harder to surprise me, I guess. The desired ends simply justify any means, from weapons causing serious collateral damage to out and out bribery.
ReplyDeleteChief,
ReplyDeletei live in a extreme poverty area compounded by generations of problems yet unsolved.
I live in a place where the NFL or a lotto win is the best way out.
We are the 2nd poorest county and a long shot from the beltway or portlandia.We have a aids rate and std rate to rival Ghana.
The poverty is palpable AND then we read such as you discuss in this essay.
One has to ask WTF?
Maybe we can justify these cash payments as a early type of bailout for the suck asses riding the gravy train.
Nice call on pubbing this.
jim
I didn't yawn, I hate to admit it but I laughed; anyone else remember "The Mouse That Roared"? The macguffin was that this shitty little duchy would declare war on the U.S., lose immediately, and then get all Marshall-planned and rake in the bucks. Of course, because it's a comedy instead they WIN and end up having to give foreign aid to the U.S....
ReplyDeleteThis is almost too ridiculous; I'm all in favor of using silver instead of lead, but forgawdsakes can we at least make sure we buy people who are a) gonna stay bought and b) can actually DO something useful with all that taxpayer cash?
Shit, with these idiots we might just as well be dropping off Hefty bags of unmarked bills at the trailer home of the cast of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo"...
Chief: I suggest doing it the old way.
ReplyDeleteEvery year, show up in Kabul and give a donkey load of gold to the "King of Afghanistan" ("President" I guess these days). And then say, we will be back next year with another donkey load.
Then *leave* and not come back for a year. In the mean time, all the movers and shakers will be so busy scheming to make *their* guy "King" they won't be looking to cause troubles outside of Afghanistan.
Everyone wins. The Afghans are paid to play their national sport and the rest of the world isn't bothered overmuch.
Brilliant AEL. Perhaps even better doing it in small denomination bills, making the counting and distributing time longer. Kind of in the category of "Idle hands are........"?
ReplyDeleteTo all,
ReplyDeletei try to put this stuff in perspective.
Martha Stewart goes to prison for lying about insider trading and Abramhoff goes to prison for doing essentially what the CIA did every day in Afgh.
Now we know where the buck really stops.
jim
Yeah, jim, but at least Martha showed us how to make adorable Christmas decorations out of Neiman Marcus sconces. WTF had Karzai done for us lately?
ReplyDeleteChief,
ReplyDeletewtf has Obomba done for us lately??!
jim
jim: ??? Dunno how I'd even begin to address that one. Are you suggesting that the elected Chief Executive of the U.S. government is a foreign potentate whose relatives we're paying off with hefty-bags of unmarked cash?
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm saying that we couldn't work that system, but, still...
Chief: there sure is a very clear desire for interest groups to make their purchases of elected officials and elections as "unmarked" as possible. We have just about reached the point in capitalism where we have a "free market" government, with legislation going to the highest contributors (purchasers?)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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