It's ok Davin, just let go...
Boy, I’m glad you repackaged that story. Check out some of the links on that site-down right embarrassing.
Afghanistan's top donors - Britain, Germany, Japan and the US - are expected to pledge $9 billion (£5bn) over the next four years at the conference, according to German newspaper reports.
This is the first I’ve read of future pledges This leaves out the ROW which you continue to harp on. You rejected my estimate of 260 million in total aid in 2000 without rejecting how I arrived at it. I told you why It had to be estimated. If the ROW is insignificant as your source seems to say, then All I need to do is find the figures for Britain and Germany. Note Japan has gone from 7million to 600 million. US aid has jumped 1700% and I think you’ll find the overall aid has gone up as much. Can you say WINDFALL?
However Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan Finance Minister, complained in Tokyo last week that his country would need $27.5 billion (£15.16bn) to rebuild itself over the next seven years and that previous pledges "vastly underestimated" its needs.
Um, if the current level of support continues, then 4.4bn x 7years = 30.8 billion, Hello? Of course they are going to say it’s “not enoughâ€- it’s a negotiation. Should they say “ We have enough for now thanks†(And rebuild itself into what? Pre 1979 glory?)
The $4.5 billion dollars in pledges Afghanistan received at the Tokyo donors' conference in January 2002 had failed to lift it out of poverty, he said.
Again, It is not our job to bring them into the 21 century and as far as “lifting them out of poverty†they need to start scratching and clawing their own way out. We can no easier transfer prosperity to Afghanistan than we can hand democracy to Iraq. And speaking of Iraq, If you want to gloat about WMD then start another thread.