LONG AND
WINDING ROADS
“When you build roads in mountainous areas, you have to decide which side
of the river you will go up,” Wilder explained. “That makes a huge difference,
and it often ends up being decided along
tribal lines. It can end up being very dangerous, especially in areas where there is
already instability.”
A road that benefited one tribe — and
even earned their goodwill toward the
central government — risked alienating
another tribe who was left out, Wilder
and his associates found. The cumulative
benefit, in terms of winning hearts and
minds, would be none — or worse.
“In these zero-sum societies, one person’s gain is someone else’s loss,” Wilder
told me. “Winners and losers are perceived to be much bigger with roads.
There is lots of demand for roads, and
lots of money. It’s not that they are not
valued. It is the very fact that they are so
valued that drives the instability.”
INFOGRAPHIC BY TIM WALLACE/HUFFINGTON
WE BUILT TOO MUCH
One afternoon shortly after I arrived in
Lashkar Gah, I sat at a wooden picnic
table on the base with a young American
official to talk about the ultimate question that hovers over the development
scheme in Afghanistan: What will happen
when the Americans finally leave?
Years of bloated development budgets
have resulted in a spending free-for-all,
but very little consideration for what
HUFFINGTON
10.14.12
The Road Not Taken
According to USAID, the U.S. has funded
the construction of some 1,242 miles
of roadways across Afghanistan. That’s
enough to lay fresh roadways from Miami, Fla. to New Brunswick, NJ.
1,242
1,200
1,050
950
East Brunswick, NJ
Philadelphia, Pa.
Washington, D.C.
Richmond, Va.
725
Fayetteville, N.C.
475
Savannah, Ga.
350
Jacksonville, Fla.
0
Miami, Fla.