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Rahmat Gul / AP
A street vendor carries bread in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- There isn’t much of a buzz about NATO’s summit on the streets of the Afghan capital Kabul, at least not outside government agency walls. The majority of citizens continue to focus on earning a few dollars a day to survive in a country tormented by war since 1979.
The NATO gathering in Chicago is expected to draw up an exit strategy and finalize a financial commitment to Afghan Security Forces (ANSF), as the foreign combat mission comes to an end in a couple of years. The Afghan government is asking the international community to commit $4.1 billion a year to keep their security operations running.
Friday after prayers at a mosque in the center of the city, most of the men did not even know what the summit in Chicago was about or even Afghanistan’s role in it.
Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads
Others used it as an opportunity to raise their frustrations about U.S. and international involvement in Afghanistan.
“They haven’t achieved anything in the last 10 years!” Mullah Khaista Gul said. “They should learn lessons from the past. We have seen conferences in the past, in London, Germany and Afghanistan, but none of them benefited ordinary Afghans.”
Obama, NATO leaders chart path out of Afghanistan
Some, although unaware of the purpose of this summit, know that it involves more financial aid and hope it can in some way benefit Afghanistan.
“The international community should not leave Afghanistan alone,” Khalil Khan, a 29-year-old pharmacist, said. “The Chicago conference is a hopeful gathering and the international community and Afghans should really think about a good future for all of us. They should hand their money and responsibility to good people who can be trusted, not warlords.”
Raz Mohammad, 27, who works with a trucking company, was the only one we spoke to who understood what the Chicago meetings on Afghanistan would be about -- the funding of Afghan security forces.
Sixty heads of state gathered in Chicago for a two-day NATO summit to discuss funding and implementing long-term security for Afghanistan. NBC's Chuck Todd report.
Mohammad said he thinks that the international community should continue to support the security forces if they want to make sure Afghanistan doesn't fall into Taliban hands again. He said that too many mistakes have been made in the past and that they need to be resolved quickly and correctly.
Report: Taliban, Afghan troops forge agreements
“In Nuristan province last year, the police didn’t receive their salaries for four or five months. Many of them got fed up and angry then decided to join the Taliban,” Mohammad said.
But he also believes that there are more problems than just financial and he said more needs to be done to stop the high attrition rates within the security forces.
President Barack Obama welcomes foreign leaders to the NATO summit in Chicago, Illinois. NBC's Kristen Welker reports on the thousands of protesters ascending in the downtown area.
“I have also seen many people join the army or police for six months, make some money and go back to use that money to help grow their crops,” he said. “It’s important that this be discussed in Chicago and see how they can fix it.”
As world leaders gather at the NATO summit in Chicago, most Afghans don’t know how it will affect their future. But there are some who still hold on to the hope that those leaders will make the right decisions to benefit Afghanistan.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Leave a Comment:
Although there may be little buzz on the streets of Kabul, there appears to be plenty of interest at the NATO summit on the streets of Chicago. Stay safe all.
There's little buzz because the Afghans will simply adapt, which means a messy exit if the world fails to fund what they, driven by US, started. Pakistan might want to reconsider their fee of $5000 per truck per way.
reminds me of an old saying: can teach a man to fish.....
instead of tossing billions at a problem to lol... fix its self, why not give then machines, tools, and, and send teachers, and doctors? is this so hard? give them the tools they need to start building an economy. should be cheap to start, however, i think this was done in Iraq. problem was, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). The men wanted to wear sandals while doing heavy construction work type stuff, lol....
maybe it was lead a horse to water.....?
There's little buzz because the Afghan man on the street is smarter than his Western counterparts.
Then why is he so bass akward.
Hmmm .... he's living the way he wants to and he has kicked every invader's ass for thousands of years. I'm not so sure I'd call that bass akward.
we bribe/spend millions on the government and "local leaders" and the population has to scratch together just enough to eat everyday? Sounds familiar? In the back of my mind aI remember a phrase "Win the hearts and minds of the people." Our government is so blind it thinks "The people" are only it's leadership.
Thanks to the Dick, Cheney and his little band of Neo(cons) we will be mired in this Region from now til the END OF DAYS-which will come in the form of a Mushroom cloud.
And therein lies the problem. The Afghans expect outside forces to fix their country. They should realize by now that's impossible; only they can make it better.
Afghanistan is a burden to the world plain and simple... a tribal, 7th century culture (I'm being generous) plagued with corruption and little self determination... "Let the West take care of us" the Afghans say... Ten plus years is enough of the US "gravy train"... Time for the US to get out!
"“They haven’t achieved anything in the last 10 years!” Mullah Khaista Gul said. “They should learn lessons from the past. We have seen conferences in the past, in London, Germany and Afghanistan, but none of them benefited ordinary Afghans.”"
Sums it well.
What was the use of spending billions and losing lives?
Now even the NATO's image is shattered.
Having Pakis as allies is responsible for the current mess!
Only those who did not know track records of Pakistan and the details of region can fall flat despite all bravados!
The people of Afghanistan don't have time to worry about what lying bureaucrats have to say. I don't see why this is a shock to anyone. They are busy worrying about making money to feed their families and not getting blown up or caught in the NATO/Taliban crossfire.
My good buddy,
Pierre Rousselin
wrote an editorial for Le Figaro.fr
Worth reading it the original. French.
I was mesmerized by his accuracy. I wrote a reply:
Réactions
Recommander Harth Sid
Mon cher Pierre Rousselin,
Je suis Sid Harth.
J'espère et je prie qu'ils ne seraient pas que vous envoyez à la Corse pour votre commentaire subtil mais très précise du G8 gâcher à Chicago. J'ai essayé d'alerter mes lecteurs sur le mensonge de Barack Obama. Il joue avec des allumettes. Pas un bon signe pour un président d'un pays. François Hollande, au contraire, est la création d'un buzz de la sienne. Il ya une réalité quelque part entre ces deux côtés de la zone euro problème. Seul le temps nous le dira. Réunion informelle mercredi pourrait s'avérer un événement qui doit être étroitement surveillée. Je suis sûr que, vous, mon pote, Pierre, serait le premier et le journaliste avant tout pour couvrir largement. Qu'est-ce que tu attends? Une invitation gravée sur un plateau d'argent? Aller. Battez vos tambours de guerre. Je voudrais, si je devais vous. Have a nice day.
... et je suis Sid Harth@mysistereileen.com
Le 21/05/2012 à 09:43
This is the 5th time you've posted this on an article, and it's starting to get annoying.
Why post an article in French when most of us can't read French?
My dear Pierre Rousselin,
I'm Sid Harth.
I hope and pray that they will not send you to Corsica for your subtle but very accurate comment regarding the G8 mess in Chicago. I have tried to alert my readers about the lies of Barack Obama. He plays with matches. Not a good sign for a president of a country. Francois Hollande, however, is creating a buzz of his own. There is a reality somewhere between these two sides of the euro area problem. Only time will tell.
An iInformal meeting Wednesday could be an event that should be closely monitored. I'm sure you, my friend, Peter, are first and foremost a journalist and this should be covered extensively. What are you waiting for? An invitation engraved on a silver platter? Go. Beat your drums of war. I would if I were you. Have a nice day.
What a silly article.
The vast, vast, vast majority of people in Afghanistan have never heard of 9/11
so who could expect them to know or care about bureaucrats flapping their jaws in far off Chicago!?
Come on!
Americans have the benefit of high tech information and yet the vast majority don't know what Afghanistan is about really and don't really know what happened on 9/11. So good luck with Afghanis!
But-but-but...FREEDOM! An-an-and, DEMOCRACY!
All I know is it`s going to cost the U.S.Gov. a ton of money in Afganistan along with pumping money into every other cess pool around the world while here at home they will be telling the middle class you have to tighten your belt....again.
Hityme your right!its ashame that so many in this country are starveing,looseing their homes and have no idea what the future holds.We need a leader not a Brain Dead Rock Star that doesnt have a clue.Whats next Yemen? lets get out of the whole area and let them go back to what they do best.Killing each other over dirt
For someone supposedly not brain dead, you misspelled you're, starving, and losing. (who the hell is starving in the USA?) You also capitalized brain-dead rock star for no reason. I believe it was Republicans that decided to invade Iraq/Afghanistan, not Democrats. I wonder how much that stole from your poor middle-class paycheck...
nb: You forgot to add the double space after a period. (Or even a single space, which I think is the newer standard.)
AG99,
You usage of parentheses was deemed unnecessary.
nb,
You are an idiot for spending time blogging on peoples incorrect grammar and yes, I do understand the irony of myself blogging to make fun of you blogging to correct peoples grammar.
Corky: Oh, it's worse than that. My parenthetical phrase wasn't even a complete sentence. ;)
If the ordinary Afghanistani want change, they will need to stop going to mosque on friday and begin to dismantle the religious impetous that inspires the Taliban. Islam is the bottom line of doctrine upon which the Taliban is based. The Taliban have made the Koran and Hadith the sole source of their culture and the end result is predictable. If the ordinary Afghan wants real change, the change will begin with them, not from the outside.
They first must abandon the term and judgement: "unislamic". Then they will begin to see some culture flowing back in.
What is an "Ordinary" Afghan? Almost sounds like an oxymoron?
The ordinary Afhan citizens are very poor and mostly just want to grow some crops, maybe have a goat or two (if they are lucky, a cow). They don't know much about the outside world and get by like they have for thousands of years. We admired Native Americans for living much the same way, doing little to change their environment and living off the land. How is this an oxymoron? Maybe you should think of them as your brothers and sisters in God. They aren't fighting for oil for their cars, they just want to live in peace but have seen their children blown up by taliban ieds and foreign countries bombing them for the past few decades. Get off your high horse and consider yourself lucky that you just happened to be born here in USA instead of there.
It's the same over here as it is there. The scum floats to the top, along with all the money. Forget anyone giving you anything, you have to take it, just like they do.
Morning,,,,,
what a waste of time money and lives, even the common man over there knows it is. all we know here is where the remote and the all you can eat place is,we dont care about wars,even if they wreck the economy. It doesnt matter who is president,if a republican is elected he'll have us in another one as soon as he can. Weapons,death and mayhem are our chief export. And who can deny this?
Look at the picture of Obama and Karzai. Why is Obama threatening Karzai with a scimitar? LOL
From Chicago to Kabul
Many here are just as skeptical as you reflect in the above article. Where and who benefits isn't really clear. I've got a feeling the normal people won't benefit much at all.
how about we spend 4billion a year to stabalise the Mexican region? take back the 3 billion plus we give Pakistan every year and we got 7 billion a year to invest in our own region. i can think of 50 states that would love to have 7 billion a year !!!!!! we need to burn this Establishment down and start over . the government is corrupt and as long as that stands we shall fall.
Karzai is playing the US for suckers. He doesn't want the Taliban gone. Every time we tried something that was effective against the Taliban he would cry that we can't do that because too many civilians we being killed. News Flash !!! The Taliban are ALL civilians.
It's just a ruse by Karzai to keep the US cash flowing in because he knows that fifteen minutes after the last U.S. flight out of there he's a dead man and the Taliban will be in control again. And when that happens and the world press cries about the horrors in Afghanistan we should simply tell them that we just spent ten years trying to rid them of the dreaded Taliban and all the people wanted to do was hide them from us so we couldn't catch them, and now they have what they wanted. The Taliban back in control and the U.S. and NATO gone. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Agree Uncle Sap has to be the world's worst poker player. Goes home broke very time.
They need to be reminded that when they have their protests and chant "Death To America" that it would be terribly wrong to accept money from the Great Satan.
We ought to pack up EVERYTHING and not leave so much as a match stick and come home and bring our checkbook with us. Then refer to my post above.
It is amazing how these countries can vehemently vilify us yet have no problem taking our money. The stupidity of our so called leaders never ceases to amaze me. If a country doesn't like us, that's OK, they won't like our money either is the way it should be projected in our foreign policy. We don't give money to people that don't like us should be the way it works. It's no wonder we're going broke.
”The declaration of the new president of France, Francois Hollande, that all its troops will be removed from Afghanistan at the end of this year is a decision based on realities and a reflection of the opinion of its nation.
“Terrorism and ground realities had nothing in common. No Afghan had a hand in military operations in other countries and neither are there any proofs hence the occupation of Afghanistan by America is neither sound legally or logically.” ~ Mullah Omar, head of Afghan Taliban
What is really galling is how they vilify America and then....then turn around and say "give us billions of dollars per year so we can defend ourselves." MR. PRESIDENT, THE SHORT ANSWER IS NO!
I am sick of the muslim world not using their own money to solve their own problems. As Saudi Arabia and I ran and Libya and Kuwait to contribute to your defense. If your so called muslim brotherhood exists, now is the time for them to step forward and show themselves.
Please..please..do not give them one penny of taxpayer money. Use it to protect our shores. Let them stew in their own sewage!
At this point, I'd say we need to continue to draw down our forces. If the population doesn't want us there we need to get out.
I'm not buying any of this.
If we are "concerned" about helping a country to stand on its own two feet, then Afghanistan needs to stand in line. There are many counties around the world that need help. Countries that have been at war forever. Countries where a great day for the average citizen is a bite of bread on the table.
There must be something going on in Afghanistan that we want. Something that makes it attractive enough to the power brokers that wasting American lives is worth it. Its true that the terrorists from 9/11 called Afghanistan home, but all we really needed to do was blow them to their hell and back again without setting a single boot on the ground. The fact we send in troops instead of blowing Afghanistan to bits tells me that there is something going on behind the scenes.
I do not know why we are REALLY there. I know that these boards are filled with people that think they do ... conspiracy nuts have blossomed lately .... but I doubt anyone really knows whats going on behind the scenes. If MSN wants to really report the news, maybe it should look into the reasons why we send troops there instead of bombing them back to the stone-age ... which for Afghanistan, may be an improvement.
Afghans are terrorists, drug pushers, and welfare cases which rely upon the US either directly or indirectly.
Their is nothing we need to send to that hell hole which cannot be delivered by F/A 18.
Is their anyone left in America, except obama. who supports giving them even one more dollar, let alone another American life?
Yet when Obama is the one who wants to end the war, all the Republicans say we need to stay there at least another decade!
I agree nb-895929. Every time the President mentions anything about withdrawing the troops, the Republicans, usually led by John McCain, tell us that's akin to abandonment. Honestly, if the Afghan government and military haven't learned to fend for themselves yet, then what guarantee is there that they ever will? I believe Afghanistan is perfectly capable of running itself. After all, they drove Russia out, didn't they? If Afghanistan wants progress then it needs to be the master of its own destiny.
That's because both parties are one and the same. The military industrial complex doesn't make any money when weapons are just laying around stockpiled. They need to be expended and replaced to keep the cash flowing.
I seriously hope that voters from both sides who are fed up with the gridlock and stupidity of Congress will vote for Independent candidates to replace these party pawns from both sides who are running this country into the ground. There are 535 people in DC that decide where this country goes and they are apparently in agreement on running us into the ground, otherwise it wouldn't be this way. I say dump both parties at every opportunity and elect Independents that are not manipulated by either party. Their only allegiance is to the people that elected them. Deprive both parties of a majority and end the gridlock. That, in my opinion, is the only hope we have for any real change to happen.
I'm disappointed in Obama on this matter.
Lets take a look through history. I don't remember that last time a dem president started a war. Sure, a few planes flew over Libya under Obama, but that not a war. I also can't remember the last time a rep president DID NOT start a war. From Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, Desert Storm ... republicans start wars and dems end them. So ... why hasn't Obama stopped this one? Also, if Mitt gets elected and history hold true, our kids are going to be sent somewhere to die ... but where?
I really believe there is something going on in Afghanistan that prompts this action. Something that we the people don't know about. I for one, would love to find out the truth here. I would also like Obama to grow a pair, act like a dem and stop this thing now.
Our government is like a cheating spouse. They tell us what we want to hear and do as they damn well please all the while thinking that they're smart enough to never get caught and we're too stupid to ever find out.
The American people are being cheated on and lied to continuously. It has become the way things are done in Washington no matter which party is in power. There has to be a big change in how things are done and it won't happen by reelecting the same cheaters and liars into the same offices.
Since the end of the Whig party in the 1850s it has been either Democrats or Republicans in control and now you see where they have gotten us today. Both sides are equally to blame and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. Stop the insanity and vote Independent or don't complain when we get more of the same.
Hey Bread man ,you got a permit to sell them flying saucers?
The Afgan men are correct. Karzi will beg for money to support his government. There will be little or no change for the people. The people will adapt to who ever is running the government. The government will be loyal to whoever is paying them. In the end nothing will change.
Sad but true. When Karzai said that if we went into Pakistan to attack those who are killing our troops that he would stand with Pakistan we should have left immediately and told him to let Pakistan help him out. But not our all knowing so called leaders. We barely heard a peep out of Congress about that.
They all know very well we are still stuck there for a good while because our Afghan policy is still " evolving ".
When it needs to be devolving.
should not the lead stories be NATO meetings in CHICAGO? why is the press keeping the real news secret? do they need permission from WASHINGTON to tell as the TRUTH? what kind of propaganda is being cooked up? and how many will be detained on trumped up charges to make the GOVT. look good? feed on the SOMALI incident to take our eye off the ball!
Sure they hope the decisions made will benefit Afghanistan. What about some decisions to benefit America. When were gone it will go back to the same old way and all we have done is deny our own people of a better life. The Repubs like the war, it supports the bullet and bean makers. Why is Obama so adamant to stay in Afghanistan, he never really tells us why young American lives are not worth it. Were falling apart. I dont know where were going. I used to get tingles when I heard the National Anthem. not anymore. America has lost all respect in the world
The NATO summit has about as much credibility in a political sense as another day of sermons by the Federal Reserve touting 'recent economic growth'.