Afghan politics makes Karzai America's new BFF

After a rocky start where the Obama Administration slammed Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai for widespread corruption in his government and reacted with (justified) outrage over his signing into law a measure that basically legalized spousal rape and child marriage, Team Obama is now warming up to the Afghani president.

That's the analysis offered today by Reuters, which goes into detail about the improving relations between the Obama and Karzai camps. Reuters suggests that the reasons for the improvement could be that the United States now sees the growing influence of the Taliban in Pakistan as a bigger regional problem, and that there's nothing to be gained in running down the reputation of the Afghani president.

It could also be that, suddenly, there's really no alternative to Karzai in Afghanistan. The Obama Administration had been actively cultivating a relationship with Gul Agha Sherzai, a popular regional governor who was one of the first Afghani officials to join forces with the United States against the Taliban in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Team Obama thought so much of Sherzai that he was one of only four Afghani officials to be invited to the inauguration in January.

But just a day after picking his vice-presidential candidate, Sherzai shocked everyone by abruptly dropping out of the presidential race following a face-to-face meeting with Karzai. "I visited the president, and hugged his little son and decided to withdraw my candidacy for the presidential elections," Sherzai said. He also apparently offered to step down as the governor of Nangarhar Province, but Karzai refused.

In the notoriously corrupt world of Afghani politics, you have to wonder what motivation is behind Sherzai's sudden decision, but whatever his reason, Sherzai's leaving the race means there is really no viable challenger to Karzai in the August 20 election, which probably goes a long way in explaining Washington's change in tune.

And while we're speaking of Afghanistan and corruption, a new report out today exposes just how little foreign aid is actually making it to the people of Afghanistan. According to the Independent, the World Bank calculates that 35-40% of all foreign aid is "badly spent" (their words), though the Independent's article makes this figure seem low.

The culprits are not only corrupt local officials, but incredibly wasteful Western aid agencies as well. In a country where three-quarters of all citizens don't have indoor plumbing, foreign contractors insist on bedrooms with private baths. Foreign aid consultants in Kabul can earn as much as $500,000 per year, by comparison the average salary for an Afghani civil servant is only $1,000 and a policeman's monthly salary is just $70.

The average stay for a foreign worker in Afghanistan is only a few months, and security concerns put severe restrictions on their travel, meaning that few foreigners either gain a full understanding of problems on the ground or build meaningful partnerships with local Afghanis, which in turn has a negative impact on the quality of development-assistance programs.