They do this regularly, get together, promise aid, “keep up the good fight, ol’ boy”, “stamp out that corruption, y’know”, “twist the ol’ foot when you get it on their necks”, “you can do it, we have faith”, “watch your back, and maybe your sides, the front of course and maybe underfoot and your head, too”, the beggars seem to be everywhere.
And then no one pays, everyone blames everyone else, and what little gets through to Afghanistan seems to float away to a Swiss bank and Dubai island. Why do they bother any more? Afghanistan was a lost cause at the beginning, is a lost cause now, and evermore will be a lost cause except to those who call it home and love it.
“U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a previously unannounced visit to Kabul on Saturday to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the eve of a donors’ conference in Tokyo to pledge aid for Afghanistan.
“U.S. officials with Clinton declined to say how much aid the United States would pledge at the Tokyo meeting, nor how much was expected to be committed overall as the international community seeks to back the Afghan economy and prevent the country from sliding back into chaos as foreign troops withdraw.
“Participants are expected to commit just under $4 billion annually in development aid for Afghanistan at Sunday’s meeting. “