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Afghan children play near Kabul. Afghanisan has a life expectancy of 44 and only 12% of women are literate – and it remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Photograph: Musadeq Sadeq/AP
Corruption
How the coalition defines success in Afghanistan is changing all the time. Expectations are being managed about what the country will look like, with warnings that many in the west may not like what they see.
Nobody in Nato talks about being able to defeat the Taliban any more. The best that can be hoped for is that the political and security situation can be made good enough to give the Afghan government a chance to go it alone after 2014. But nobody believes the country will be ready to stand on its own feet through the transition phase and thereafter without considerable support.
Who will give that help, how long will it be needed, and who will pay?
Afghanistan remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It has a life expectancy of 44 and only 12% of women are literate. None of those problems will be solved in three years. "This is a developing country, starting from a very low base, with shooting attached," said one western official. Unlike Iraq, "it doesn't have an educated middle class and it doesn't have oil to pay for everything". The British ambassador in Kabul, Sir William Patey, says it will take two generations for Afghans to see real transformation. Some aid workers estimate it is a 25-year project.
Corruption
How the coalition defines success in Afghanistan is changing all the time. Expectations are being managed about what the country will look like, with warnings that many in the west may not like what they see.
Nobody in Nato talks about being able to defeat the Taliban any more. The best that can be hoped for is that the political and security situation can be made good enough to give the Afghan government a chance to go it alone after 2014. But nobody believes the country will be ready to stand on its own feet through the transition phase and thereafter without considerable support.
Who will give that help, how long will it be needed, and who will pay?
Afghanistan remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It has a life expectancy of 44 and only 12% of women are literate. None of those problems will be solved in three years. "This is a developing country, starting from a very low base, with shooting attached," said one western official. Unlike Iraq, "it doesn't have an educated middle class and it doesn't have oil to pay for everything". The British ambassador in Kabul, Sir William Patey, says it will take two generations for Afghans to see real transformation. Some aid workers estimate it is a 25-year project.