Kleptocrats love wars, because the largest kickbacks originate in the military industry. Military procurement is a corrupt business from top to bottom. The process is dominated by advocacy, with few checks and balances. Most people in power love this system of doing business and do not want it changed. War and preparation for war systematically corrupt all parties to the state-private transactions by which the government obtains the bulk of its military products. There is a standard 10% kickback to kleptocrats for military purchases.
It is time to acknowledge that military intervention in Afghanistan has failed and even led to a deterioration of security there, say MEPs in a controversial report blaming the coalition forces for miscalculating their options. A new EU exit strategy needs to be shaped in full co-operation with the Afghans, and including the Taliban at the negotiating table, adds the report, approved in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
The EU strategy for Afghanistan needs a radical rethink: first, the EU and its allies need to acknowledge continuous deterioration in security and the socio-economic situation in the country, despite almost a decade of international involvement, and understand the need to get the Afghans fully involved in the exit strategy, says the report. The coalition is increasingly being perceived by the Afghan population as an occupying force, warn MEPs. A more balanced civilian and military approach is needed, including more concrete measures to eradicate poverty and discrimination against women.
MEPs propose to articulate the new EU strategy for Afghanistan around four key factors: improving the co-ordination of international aid, fine-tuning the EU role and involvement of Afghan players in the peace process, improving the quality of police training and fighting for the elimination of opium cultivation.
In the controversial report adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee, with many amendments being passed by a narrow majority, MEPs blame the current situation in the country on early miscalculations made by coalition forces. "The presence of the Taliban was underestimated, the ability of the Karzai government to provide governance overestimated, and as a result, little attention was paid to the task of rebuilding and developing the country", they say.
They recognise that the only possible solution for Afghanistan now is a political one, and that this should include negotiations - to eventually take place against the backdrop of a ceasefire - with the Taliban and other combatant groups and political players in the country who show their will to put an end to the civil war, and ensure respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights.
The EU's three red lines for engaging in a peace process must be a commitment by all parties involved to banish Al Qaeda, as well as any other terrorist group, to eliminate poppy cultivation, and establish respect for fundamental human rights.
Participants in the military-industrial-kleptocrat complex(MIKC) are routinely blamed for mismanagement, not infrequently they are accused of waste, fraud, abuse, and kickbacks(WFAK), and from time to time a few of them are indicted for criminal offenses. All of these unsavory actions, however, are typically viewed as aberrations, misfeasances to be rectified or malfeasances to be punished while retaining the basic system of state-private cooperation in the production of military goods and services. These offenses are in reality expressions of a thoroughgoing, intrinsic rottenness in the entire setup.
It is time to acknowledge that military intervention in Afghanistan has failed and even led to a deterioration of security there, say MEPs in a controversial report blaming the coalition forces for miscalculating their options. A new EU exit strategy needs to be shaped in full co-operation with the Afghans, and including the Taliban at the negotiating table, adds the report, approved in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
The EU strategy for Afghanistan needs a radical rethink: first, the EU and its allies need to acknowledge continuous deterioration in security and the socio-economic situation in the country, despite almost a decade of international involvement, and understand the need to get the Afghans fully involved in the exit strategy, says the report. The coalition is increasingly being perceived by the Afghan population as an occupying force, warn MEPs. A more balanced civilian and military approach is needed, including more concrete measures to eradicate poverty and discrimination against women.
MEPs propose to articulate the new EU strategy for Afghanistan around four key factors: improving the co-ordination of international aid, fine-tuning the EU role and involvement of Afghan players in the peace process, improving the quality of police training and fighting for the elimination of opium cultivation.
In the controversial report adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee, with many amendments being passed by a narrow majority, MEPs blame the current situation in the country on early miscalculations made by coalition forces. "The presence of the Taliban was underestimated, the ability of the Karzai government to provide governance overestimated, and as a result, little attention was paid to the task of rebuilding and developing the country", they say.
They recognise that the only possible solution for Afghanistan now is a political one, and that this should include negotiations - to eventually take place against the backdrop of a ceasefire - with the Taliban and other combatant groups and political players in the country who show their will to put an end to the civil war, and ensure respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights.
The EU's three red lines for engaging in a peace process must be a commitment by all parties involved to banish Al Qaeda, as well as any other terrorist group, to eliminate poppy cultivation, and establish respect for fundamental human rights.
Participants in the military-industrial-kleptocrat complex(MIKC) are routinely blamed for mismanagement, not infrequently they are accused of waste, fraud, abuse, and kickbacks(WFAK), and from time to time a few of them are indicted for criminal offenses. All of these unsavory actions, however, are typically viewed as aberrations, misfeasances to be rectified or malfeasances to be punished while retaining the basic system of state-private cooperation in the production of military goods and services. These offenses are in reality expressions of a thoroughgoing, intrinsic rottenness in the entire setup.
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