Vastly Corrupt Afghan Cops Await US Trainers

The 4,000 troops President Obama is sending to train Afghanistan's police and army will run straight into a formidable wall of corruption that undermines national security at every turn, American soldiers tell the New York Times. Cops pilfer gas, judges take money, top officials profit from the drug trade, and many jobs are sold—giving the clear-but-brutal Taliban more credibility than the ineffectual and greedy government.

The cycle is self-perpetuating and deeply ingrained, the soldiers say, citing abuses of power and graft that in turn rob civil authorities of the resources needed to fund their missions. “This is the reason no one accepts the rule of law,” says a provincial police chief, “because the government is not going by the rule of law.”
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