Canadian Privy Council Report: Rebuilding Afghanistan “difficult”

The bleak forecastof the heavily censored reportis at odds with recent claims by other Canadian officials (that progress has been significant and steady.)
The report was written by PCO's intelligence assessment co-ordinating committee and widely distributed within government. It is based "diplomatic and intelligence sources from Canada and allied countries."

Bob Bergen, of the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, says the assessment is more in line with the "very realistic" briefings of joint parliamentary committees than with the government's public statements. He continued that the committee's report is a "very good assessment because it lays out in very stark terms the challenges that NATO faces" in both military and economic spheres.

It summarizes that the Afghanistan's financial infrastructure is "primitive" and its recent economic growth "will be difficult to sustain. Afghanistan is "seriously hampered" by:
security problems,
endemic corruption,
skilled labour shortages,
limited access to finances,
land tenure problems,
the strain of returning refugees and
"the generally weak rule of law,"

It says the vast majority of the population still struggles for the "bare essentials of survival," just as they did in the days of the Taliban (although the report cites some progress in schooling and access to basic health care.) The influx of foreign aid, is driving a reconstruction boom, but is far from being self-sustaining.

It notes that the entire country's economy is heavily dependent on the drug trade. Bob Bergen said with the continued existence of the narco-economy the “Afghani government could be completely and utterly overrun by the Taliban." So Bergen encouraged NATO to adopt an “even more robust” military approach."

The Privy Council committee produced at least one earlier report on Afghanistan last December, “The Afghan Economy: Is there one?” That study slammed non-governmental agencies for their "squandering of aid money" and said "the rehabilitation efforts of disparate aid groups, agencies and nations often overlap, conflict, or are at worst, fratricidal."

Bergen argued that aid money should be channeled through coalition military forces, he said.

RECALL: Canada Relieves Afghan Famine with F-18s and Arm Shipments
To deal with a drought and famine affecting 2.5 million people, Canada responded by:
adding iodine to salt
adding iron to flour
extending food aid to widow in Kabul

For Better Formatting See:
 http://afghaniblog.livejournal.com/34088.html

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Canadian Privy Council Report: Rebuilding Afghanistan “difficult”