US to cut Aid to Afghanistan

A subcommittee of the US House of Representatives has voted to block $3.9 billion in aid to Afghanistan.

Highlighting corruption as the principal reason for the vote, chairwoman Nita Lowey explained:

I do not intend to appropriate one more dime for assistance to Afghanistan until I have confidence that US taxpayer money is not being abused to line the pockets of corrupt Afghan government officials, drug lords and terrorists

I agree that all imaginable measure should be taken to ensure that aid money is not siphoned away by corrupt individuals and that it benefits the most vulnerable people in fragile states such as Afghanistan. Also, all tax payers unquestionably deserve transparency and accountability. However, the pious language of the subcommittee's statement seems to ignore the fact that the all-important US taxpayer money in question is used to fund an occupying army in Afghanistan.

Worse still, it is hard to accept the veracity of such sentiments when a recent report by numerous international aid agencies highlighted that aid is referred to as a nonlethal weapon in a US army manual for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.