re: #167 ProGunLiberal

Found this for you:

April 24, 2012: A major obstacle to improving security in Iraq and Afghanistan was not equipment, training, or leadership but corruption. No matter how well led, trained, and equipped the troops were, if they could be bought they were worse than useless. But the corruption went beyond the troops themselves. Government officials had to be carefully monitored to prevent the money for equipment, training, and pay from being stolen before it got to the troops. More fundamentally, corruption was the reason Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other nations are poor and full of unhappy and often violent people. Corruption is why these places are chaotic and so often in the news. Corruption is the major cause of Islamic terrorism. Corruption does not get the recognition it deserves.

But in Afghanistan corruption has recently risen to new heights: literally. Several recent attacks in Kabul have made use of unfinished high-rise buildings, where terrorists used the height advantage to do more damage. American advisors noted that there were a lot of unfinished tall buildings in Kabul and many had apparently been abandoned. The Americans asked the local government who owned these high-rise structures and was told that the government didn’t know. Kabul has undergone a construction boom in the last decade, and many of the builders (or their backers) didn’t bother with getting construction permits. If the cops or officials came around asking questions they were offered a bribe, a death threat, or both. Inquisitive journalists were handled the same way.

SNIP

But Islamic terrorists saw opportunity where others saw an unfinished building. So now the American advisers are trying to get more security on these unfinished sites or permission to tear down the ones that overlook military bases or government compounds. Kabul officials are reluctant to do that either because if the owner does return he will go looking for compensation from whoever gave the order to destroy his unfinished building.