INFRASTRUCTURE AND AGRICULTRE
While Bergen acknowledges that "a good deal of aid to Afghanistan has ended up lining the pockets of corrupt Afghan officials," he points out that Afghanistan is also the site of a supremely successful aid initiative: the National Solidarity Program. Since 2003, thanks to the program, roughly $1 billion has been distributed for some 60,000 specific projects. "Thousands of schools and countless irrigation networks have been built, positively affecting the lives of some two-thirds of the rural population," Bergen writes.
In this photo, Afghan workers pluck saffron flowers on a farm in Herat on Nov. 9, 2010.
Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
