This is what happens when you try to bring a western-style of centralized govt and govt services to a tribal-based country that's barely out of the stone-age, where corruption is rampant, starting at the top.

Makes me wonder how different things would be if we took the piles of money we've already "invested" in Afghanistan, and instead of giving it to Karzai and his cronies at the national level, if we divided it evenly amongst every man, woman, and child in that country, or at least at the local or provincial level? Think things would be different now? I'll go out on a ledge here and say yes...

We're destined to fail in Afghanistan, just like every western power that's gone before us, because some numb nuts at the puzzle palace and white house dream up some grandoise strategic plan that fails miserably at the tactical level.