NEWS: Canadian aid vs. military expenditures in Afghanistan
Dear activists,
January 10, 2007
Please see an interesting Canadian Press report (click here) from today which notes that, "Five years after Canada began pumping millions of aid dollars into Afghanistan, taxpayers still have no idea how well the money is being spent. Not a single audit has been publicly released by federal government officials."
The article also reports, "Critics say it's a massive reporting void that leaves the public in the dark as Conservatives promote a mission that has been heavy on combat, light on reconstruction. It has also cost 44 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat their lives since 2002."
It also notes, "Afghanistan...received $100 million last year from CIDA and is to get the same amount for the next four years."
Compared to that sum, we know from the Polaris Institute's excellent May 2006 report, "Boots on the Ground", that "Canada has spent $4.146 billion on military operations in or related to Afghanistan since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States."
To download the 4-page "Boots on the Ground" (PDF) report go to ceasefire.ca.
Using much-lower government figures, CBC.ca in their "Afghanistan, by the numbers" reports that, "The military costs for the mission in Afghanistan reached $1.8 billion in May 2006, or about $1.45 million per day of the mission. The costs are projected to exceed $3 billion by 2009."
Within that same general timeframe, the CP report below notes that, "(Aid) contributions (from Canada) are expected to total about $1 billion between 2001 and 2011..."
As recently reported by CanWest News, "...a new article in the prestigious international journal Foreign Affairs warned Afghanistan is "sliding into chaos" and that the NATO-led coalition is doomed to fail without a dramatic change in strategy...(the article's author) says fighting battles against the Taliban will achieve nothing in the long run unless the NATO coalition can solve the problems of Afghan poverty, corruption and meddling by Pakistan."
The 11-page article "Saving Afghanistan" by Barnett R. Rubin from the January/ February 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs.
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