Remember those generous and sensible promises to rebuild Afghanistan, so that it would not become, after the dismissal of the Taliban, a black hole of chaos and violence? The Washington Post reports that a marquee aid project has collapsed because the Asian Development Bank, which pledged to reconstruct the cratered road from Kabul to Kandahar, wound up offering loans to the Afghan government, not grants. The impoverished government refused, noting that it is in no position to assume $100 million in debt for the project.
Author: Peter Maass
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.
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