Press TV
October 29, 2014
US aid package to Afghanistan, doubtful: Analyst
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An anti-war activist has cast doubt on a recent US plan to pour billions of dollars into Afghanistan in what appears to be a foreign aid package, saying that Washington’s motives “are not what they appear on the surface.”
Rick Rozoff told Press TV on Tuesday that he was skeptical of US plans “to expand or extend civilian aid to the government of Afghanistan.”
“Recently the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has authorized a granting of what appears to be a rather sizable foreign aid package in fact for the new government of Afghanistan,” he said.
“Any move by the US to grant foreign aids to the fledgling government of Afghanistan, it has to be seen also as US maintaining its influence within Kabul and the region,” he noted.
According to a congressional report, whose details are due to be released on Monday, the spending must be linked to human rights reforms in Afghanistan and closer scrutiny of whether the country can maintain its new programs and buildings.
Rozoff, however, said tens of billions of US dollars flow to Afghanistan “for war and not for reconstruction, not for human needs, not for the building of roads and irrigation projects and education and civilian structures of other sort.”
“The overwhelming majority of foreign aid dollars has gone for military and security purposes with a comparatively small percentage been given for infrastructural, humanitarian and other civilian purposes,” Rozoff said.
Although most US-led troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan this year, the United States is expected to keep giving $5 billion to $8 billion annually for at least a decade.
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