Afghanistan RFI

[Schmedlap]

To this day I really don't understand the reasoning that went into the decision to build such a centralized government structure in Afghanistan. Surely there must have been reasons... but what were they?

If you look at the plan for how the Constitution was supposed to be written (lots of public consultation by a large drafting committee over an 18-month period and an orderly loya jirga to ratify), and then look at how it actually was written (divided drafting committees, secretive process, last-minute changes by Karzai and the international community and a disorganized jirga), it becomes clear that there was no reasoning - at least not outside of a very small circle powerful Afghans and a lot of non-Afghans.

To the extent there was any sanity in the process, it was modeled after the 1964 constitution. The problem is that in 1964 there was an existing state and bureaucracy upon which to build. The 1964 constitution merely replaced an earlier constitution and improved upon, within the context of a functioning government. In 2004, there was nothing. That would be like the US attempting to stand up the entire federal gov't apparatus that we have today, but to do it in 1776. I'm sure the colonies would have taken nicely to the volumes of federal statutes and regulations that we currently have.

[Steve the Planner]

Schmedlap:

The back stories from those involved at the constitutional level have to do with the maneuvers to keep out the King, and put something in to our liking. Long, winding story.

Your analogy is spot on. How the hell could you implement it?

But, remember that there still was a civil service core left in the early 2000 era. They left afterwards (or got wired in).