The US will be sending $64 million in aid to Afghanistan...

 

The Hill/Getty.

The United States is sending $64 million in aid to Afghanistan. The Hill. The UN had called for $600 million in aid to prevent famine and promote public health. The money is a drop in the bucket compared to the $300 million a day the government was spending on the war in Afghanistan. The aid will come even though the Biden administration has not recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. The fall of the Afghan government and withdrawal of US forces has lead to a food shortage and shortage of basic supplies, and many people are fleeing the country. 

My Comment:

I know that $64 million is a rounding error to the US government but it is insane to me that we are spending even more money in Afghanistan. The whole point of withdrawing our troops was to wash our hands of the Afghanistan problem. We no longer owe anything to the people of Afghanistan who made their choice when they decided to not fight the Taliban. 

And this money could be used anywhere else. Our own country is in shambles right now. The economy is declining fast, crime is out of control, the Coronavirus is still raging and we owe trillions of dollars in debt. Sending this money to try and fix some of these terrible problems is a much better idea than spending even more money on people that hate us. 

That isn't to say that Afghanistan isn't in trouble. Given the war and the pariah status of the Taliban government trade is going to suffer. And without trade they will have difficulty obtaining supplies and food. They could grow all of their food but most of Afghanistan's agriculture is dedicated towards the production of opium. Normally they could just sell that opium but the Taliban have banned it. 

This means that Afghanistan is rapidly running out of food. They won't have enough to feed everyone and even if they did they might be able to transport it. Plus they are having medical problems as well, especially with the Coronavirus pandemic going on. It's going to be a rough couple of years unless the Afghans get help.

But that help shouldn't come from us. The Taliban have made it clear they don't want us there and it makes no sense for use to spend good money after bad. We are no longer responsible for what happens in Afghanistan. And we should not be giving money to people that hate us.