Rep Antony Blinken has been blasted by members of Congress over U.S. foreign aid allocations in Afghanistan. A primary issue among the allocations, is how much of the aid money actually falls into the hands of the Taliban.
Representative Brian Mast of Florida sunk his death into the secretary over the particulars of U.S. spending in the volatile region. He used reports from the Special Instructor General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) to make his points clear.
He criticized firstly, that the U.S. gives hundreds millions in cash transfers to feed Afghani citizens, rather than providing them with material food itself. If food were sent, rather than cold hard money, the food could not be used to purchase weapons or further oppress the people of Afghanistan.
"We are giving $280 million to the United Nations to do cash transfers for food in Afghanistan - yet we're not sending an ear of corn from Iowa, a sack of potatoes from Idaho, or a cucumber or an orange from Florida. And that discounts the fact that there's no American tonnage going through our ports to send those things out of here, either. It's just cash transfers," Mast said.
He also asserted that $75 million had been spent teaching women how to farm in Afghanistan, and then argued that the U.S. doesn’t have such a budget to reach American women how to farm.
"My colleague Mr. Wilson brought up that they can't even dance in the streets or speak to one another or go to school. I'm not sure that we can trust that that $75 million is being used to teach them agriculture," Mast pointed out. He also asserted that there are no U.S. diplomats on the ground in Afghanistan capable of confirming that the funds have been allocated properly.
Rep Tim Burchett of Tennessee pushed Blinken on just how much American money ends up in the hands of a terrorist government, who just a few short years ago were killing American soldiers. Blinken began by claiming that America isn’t giving the Taliban “anything” before moments later confirming that at least $10 million U.S. tax dollars end up in Taliban hands.
