Rotten to the core

By Justin Mankin Friday, May 13, 2011 - 10:18 AM Share

Why does the West, after nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan, still have no viable strategy for fighting corruption?

Read the full article here.

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:AFPAK, AFGHANISTAN, AFPAK CHANNEL, MILITARY

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MORTIMUS

1:54 PM ET

May 13, 2011

oh, brother...

"ISAF officially defines corruption as an "abuse of public authority for private gain."

Goddamn, you sure we ain't talking about America, here?

Maybe if ISAF explained to the Afghan power-brokers that under Western-style corruption standards, the actual corruption doesn't have to go away, it just needs to get rebranded and incorporated into the legal framework of the state, maybe then they would be amenable to changes in the way they do things.

For example, there's no need to be so brash as to siphon money directly from government coffers; in America, what we do is we incorporate in Delaware and lobby for even more tax breaks; or, we hire a merry band of lobbyists to advocate for some juicy subsidies; or we put our man in the legislative chamber (via unlimited, undisclosed contributions), and have him enact laws that send taxpayer scratch our way; or, better yet, we become a contractor, bid for one of the thousands of contracts the DoD puts out and charge the government an arm and a leg for services that don't cost nearly as much, and pocket the difference.

Sure, it's a more roundabout way of doing 'bidness,' but that's the price you have to pay for the Western-style government 'Seal of Approval.'

Those Afghans could really learn a thing or two about western democracy. I'll tell ya what the problem is, them Afghans are just too damn practical and pragmatic to bother with any of our western-style 'rule of law' cosmetics.