OTTAWA—A U.S. watchdog whose investigations have found that billions of dollars in American aid has been lost to corruption, waste and futile efforts in Afghanistan suggests Canada has likely suffered similar problems in its own strategy to help the troubled country.For six years, John Sopko has served as Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction with a broad mandate to assess how U.S. cash for Afghan reconstruction is spent.His quarterly reports and special “lessons learned” investigations focussing on work to rebuild Afghan security forces, develop the economy, stabilization programs and a counternarcotics strategy underscore how international efforts have struggled to improve the economic and security situation in Afghanistan — often with little to show.“We spent too much money, too fast, too small a country with too little oversight. And we totally, totally overwhelmed the Afghan economy,” Sopko told the Star in an interview.“To a great extent it was wasted. Like spaghetti on a wall, some of it will stick. But a lot of it fell off and became money that was turned into bank accounts in Dubai and houses in Dubai, houses in Vancouver and houses in northern Virginia,” said Sopko, who was in Ottawa to speak with officials at Global Affairs and speak at the University of Ottawa.He bluntly notes that 17 years after Western nations deployed to Afghanistan to root out the networks that spawned the 9/11 terror attacks, problems remain endemic. The capabilities of Afghan’s security forces remain a question mark, corruption is “endemic” and “rampant” narcotics production helps fuel the insurgency, he said.“These are problems we still have to face. Some of them we contributed to. On corruption, we threw gasoline on the fire,” he said.Read more: Special forces secrecy impeded probe of potential wrongdoing in Afghanistan, report findsEditorial | Canada should stay away ...
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