From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 01:29:08 MST
I would support a US invasion of Iraq if I thought the US was
committed to sticking around in that country for the decades necessary
to build a working, healthy democracy. The Bush Administration has
held Afghanistan up as an example of their commitment to rebuild after
a war. Those who've followed the news know the the US has actually
done incredibly little to help rebuild Afghanistan, making this
example a source of doubt about US behavior in post-war Iraq. Now
comes even more evidence: Bush's proposed budget to congress for 2004
contains 0 dollars in spending to help rebuild Afghanistan.
From the blog of John Marshall:
---------------------------
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/feb0302.html#0214031253am
Remember that place Afghanistan? You know, we had some guys
over there. And they wear funny hats and, like, Osama bin Laden had
a vacation home there or something ...
This would seem rather to sum up how much the folks at the Bush
White House remember about the place. Apparently when the
budgeteers on the Hill started working their way through the
president's new budget they discovered there was no money, not even
a line item, for humanitarian or reconstruction funds for Afghanistan.
Remember, that was the place we weren't going to leave behind and
so forth.
Now at first I thought maybe this was a case where the money is in
there but just not labeled as being for Afghanistan or something like
that. But that really doesn't seem to be the case. Congress has had to
go back and stick in $300 million. According to this report from the
BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2759789.stm )...
The chairman of the committee that distributes foreign aid, Jim Kolbe,
says that when he asked administration officials why they had not
requested any funds, he was given no satisfactory explanation, but did
get a pledge that it would not happen again.
Jim Kolbe is a Republican, or course. So it's really not clear to me
what interest he would have in making the folks at the White House
sound like such goofs. I think you have to figure that it's as big a
screw-up as it looks like.
The BBC report also says that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is going
to be in town this month looking for aid. We'll see how he manages.
What's really telling isn't the lack of money so much as the fact that
Karzai and his people didn't even get a mention. They didn't even
merit
the standard smoke and mirrors treatment! The ultimate indignity ...
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