Ahmad Shah Katawazai, Defense Liaison at the Embassy of Afghanistan to the United States, contributes the following guest post:
President-elect Trump has declared that he will stop American taxpayers’ money from being squandered abroad. This position poses a threat to a continued US presence in Afghanistan, in light of Afghanistan’s endemic corruption. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-Elect Trump’s pick to be National Security Advisor, has been arguing from a long time that abetting corrupt officials–“backing thugs”–would tarnish the U.S. military’s reputation. Thus Trump might threaten Afghan officials that the US will cut off foreign aid if the Afghan government fails to crack down on corruption.
The U.S.-led coalition mission in Afghanistan laid the foundations for systemic corruption right from the start of the war in 2001. The U.S. provided millions of dollars in cash to the so-called warlords, as well as opium and arms smugglers. These warlords and criminals needed to protect themselves, and they found that the best way to do so was to secure high-level governmental positions. It is these people who are mainly responsible for running the mafia-style corruption machine in Afghanistan.
Yet Western policymakers neglected this problem, largely because they were focusing more on security as their top priority. What these policymakers failed to grasp was the fact that corruption could turn into a serious security threat in Afghanistan. For too long the focus was solely on fighting the insurgents, but corruption undermined this fight by fueling grievances against the Afghan government and the West. Corruption, including the diversion of Afghan resources and donor aid for the private gain of the political elite, impoverished and alienated the common people. Public anger over massive graft and corruption in the country turned people against the government and the West, thus strengthening the ranks of Taliban. Moreover, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)‘s recent report, “U.S. money was flowing to the insurgency via corruption.” Corruption in Afghanistan cuts across all aspects of the society, with 90% of Afghans saying that corruption is a problem in their daily lives, and this endemic corruption threatens the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s government.
What has been achieved in the past 15 years in Afghanistan—at the cost of billions of dollars and the sacrifices of thousands of lives—today remains at jeopardy. The country is in a fragile and vulnerable position. Yet it would be shortsighted for the US to simply disengage, or threaten to cut off aid if the Afghan government fails to crack down sufficiently. What is needed both from the Afghan government and the new U.S. administration is a unified, long-term, practical, results-oriented strategy that could produce solid outcomes. It would be wise for the Trump administration to come up with such a strategy. Afghanistan should remain a priority because of its geo-strategic location and an important U.S. ally in the region. Given the existing circumstances and the need to bolster Afghanistan’s security and economy, and to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for terrorists and insurgents, a long-term commitment and a coherent strategy to get corruption under control would be in the interests of both the U.S. and Afghan governments.
GAB | The Global Anticorruption Blog 
Well said Ahmad! The Afghan experience you’ve summed-up nicely is one of the most important anti-corruption lessons-learned of our generation. I hope others will heed it. It is not late.
Dear Matthew, It is the next interesting and confusing article to write. I am confused of your target on ‘US & Afghanistan’ relationship or tie-up. In geographical location US has no direct interest or economic relation with a dead country, like Afghanistan. It is only the Us-made terrorist-hub in mid-Asia. It is been made a ruined land-escape to beat then Soviet-dominance, or socialistic development in a historical cultural society.
This long history of Afghan-devastation is well known to world, including all economists and historians. The present US-sponsored and Pakistan promoting mafia-ruled economy and politics of Afghanistan is only a place of daily mass-killing inhabitant among poor Muslims. The poor turned fanatic Muslims are in deep-dark of medieval age, at present. And it is the target of US-led Western administration to make Afghanistan, a fool & fanatic community.
This development is beyond of any Obama or Trump-administration, but a total motivation of Western-power, as a whole. The Western dominated skillful international corruption is continuing its’ expansion to Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Syria and so on. To make an International Powered & Corrupt economy, it is just a repeat game of tyranny as like as medieval age, against continuous mass killings. The US-made menaces in Afghanistan and other poor countries have to control by US-power community only. Otherwise on-one will be saved in the most corrupt-economy of rich-world. WWI & WWII are vivid examples in this planet.
Dear Colleagues, please respect the science only in research. Please don’t mix science with narrow politics that is major ‘Corruption’, nothing else. What is our benefit in supporting the world-wide one by one tactical genocides??