Afghan aid

The World Bank is complaining that the US and the UK are undermining Hamid Karzai's government by funnelling their aid to outside groups rather than through the Afghan government.

The system used to channel Western aid to Afghanistan is undermining the government of Hamid Karzai and damaging development prospects, the World Bank has warned.

Donor countries including Britain and the United States are engaged in often wasteful projects outside the control, and sometimes the knowledge, of the Afghan administration, says a report by the Bank's economists.

I guess the fear is that if the Afghan government got the money, it wouldn't give Halliburton all those no-bid contracts.