[geoschmo]

I wish it were as simple as that. And I am sure that spending that amount of money on a country the size of Afghanistan would result in some very real short term improvements. But long term would it do any good?

There is some debate over whether the money spent in the Marshall plan was actually the cause of the spectacular resurrection of post-war Europe. A case could be made that the re-arranging of their political systems had more to do with it. That the increased freedoms of living in democratic, capitalist societies allowed them to help themselves more than the money we gave them helped.

Of course this is not something we could do easily in Afghanistan, unless the current power were removed. That sort of "American Imperialism" is the very thing that the terrorist organizations despise most about us I believe.

Geoschmo