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Re "Karzai's Office Gets Bags Full of C.I.A. Cash" (front page, April 29):
Bribing the Afghan government in this manner is shameful. How can we complain about corruption in the Afghan government when we are feeding the corruption?
How can we honor the men and women who suffered and died in combat in Afghanistan when the government that sent them into war is systematically bribing the Afghan president?
Let the Central Intelligence Agency go back to spying and stop dropping sacks of cash on President Hamid Karzai. I'm ashamed that our government would stoop to this, and I'm glad that it's backfiring.
PHILIP D. HARVEY
Washington, April 30, 2013
To the Editor:
Your report is old news, albeit dramatic and in flagrante delicto.
As a Foreign Service officer for three decades, I observed up close the contradiction between C.I.A. officers, usually under embassy cover, paying cash for access and secrets while the rest of us did it by charm alone.
It was particularly disheartening in post-independence Africa of the 1960s, when idealism still prevailed and the Agency for International Development was charged with building democracy while the Central Intelligence Agency rushed to outbid the French, the Russians and others to corrupt new and vulnerable African leaders.
Today, we have the demeaning spectacle of agency bag men vying with the Iranians to bestow briefcases bulging with cash on the notably corrupt Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
This is occurring while American servicemen and women are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan, and while we still have the temerity to talk about bringing democracy to that benighted land.
RICHARD L. JACKSON
Wellington, Fla., April 29, 2013
To the Editor:
Your article reaffirms two issues that one hopes the makers of foreign policy would have long learned:
You can neither buy loyalty nor expect bullies to stop taking your lunch money by giving it up voluntarily; and study history — sometimes it does repeat itself.
Lesson 1: The Karzai regime is corrupt to the core, and yet we still think that President Hamid Karzai is our friend and a beacon of democracy, or at least the lesser of several evils. Either way, regular payoffs of huge amounts of cash diverted into all the wrong hands is ludicrous.
Lesson 2: See Iraq. How did those deposits work out? One doesn't need a Big Four accounting firm to count more than $2 trillion dissipated in Iraq and Afghanistan while 20 percent of American children live in poverty.
But sacks of cash given to tyrants make one wonder if foreign policy and intelligence officials have any idea what they are doing.
DENIS ROSS
Paterson, N.J., April 30, 2013
To the Editor:
As a disabled Vietnam veteran, I am especially appalled at the millions in cash being paid off the books by the Central Intelligence Agency to Afghan officials.
Our soldiers continue to die in Afghanistan to help bring democracy and peace while the C.I.A. supports corrupt officials and drug lords.
This war, like Vietnam, will end badly.
BRUCE W. RIDER
Grapevine, Tex., April 29, 2013
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