Brian Cloughley: Afghan Bangs and Wimpers!

TS Eliot, The Hollow Men: "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper." Barack Obama, May 21, 2012: "As Afghans stand up, they will not stand alone." The war in Afghanistan is going badly for everyone. The ordinary people of that chaotic country, who are the most important element in the whole horrible shambles, are suffering enormously, and the vast quantities of money poured into their country by US and other taxpayers have not benefited them in any way whatever. But these oceans of cash have certainly benefited several thousand not-so-ordinary Afghans who have siphoned off countless millions of dollars into bank accounts in Dubai and elsewhere. One of these loyal citizens was the country's former vice-president, Zia Masood, who on arrival in Dubai was found to be carrying $52 million, but was allowed to go laughing to the bank without any action being taken. The US Inspector General on Afghan Reconstruction reported last year that : "As much as $10 million a day in cash is being smuggled through Kabul airport," and in March the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Central Bank told Reuters that his countrymen "have been moving up to $8 billion in cash in suitcases and carry-on bags from Afghanistan's airports every year." But it seems there is nothing that the US or anyone else can do about it. This is the totally corrupt country that is expected by Obama to "stand up" within the next year or so, and be left to look after its own domestic security in 30 months. This is the country in which this week five US soldiers were shot by an Afghan soldier. In 2009 Obama declared that "Afghanistan is not lost, but for several years it has moved backwards." Three years later, during his seven hour presidential electioneering visit to the country, during which he did not dare to travel anywhere, he declared "we must finish the job we started in Afghanistan, and end this war responsibly."