The Taliban and Opium Industry Are Getting U.S. Billions — Not So Much for the Rest of Afghanistan

The Taliban and Opium Industry Are Getting U.S. Billions — Not So Much for the Rest of Afghanistan  – By Pratap Chatterjee,

Parts of Afghanistan that have neither violent Taliban resistance nor much opium trade are virtually ignored by the U.S.

Want a billion dollars in development aid? If you happen to live in Afghanistan, the two quickest ways to attract attention and so aid from the U.S. authorities are: Taliban attacks or a flourishing opium trade. For those with neither, the future could be bleak.

In November 2008, during the U.S. presidential elections, I traveled around Afghanistan asking people what they wanted from the United States. From Mazar in the north to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan to the capital city of Kabul, I came away with three very different pictures of the country.

via The Taliban and Opium Industry Are Getting U.S. Billions — Not So Much for the Rest of Afghanistan | ForeignPolicy | AlterNet.

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