As troops exit Afghanistan, US goes high-tech to monitor taxpayer projects. The main U.S. foreign assistance agency wants to step up use of smartphones, satellite imagery and GPS cameras to oversee tax-funded development projects in Afghanistan that aid workers no longer will be able to observe firsthand as American troops leave the country.

Projects? What projects? Why will we have U.S. taxpayer funded projects in Afghanistan after the 2014 troop withdrawal?

Could it be that we don't have any worthy projects in the U.S.?
   The 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) annual report card about the health of the nation's infrastructure gave the United States an overall grade of "D+" and stated        that $3.6 trillion in investment is needed by 2020 to avoid catastrophes that could cost lives and cripple local economies.
Can't be that.

How about the Afghan government's demonstrated ability to judiciously use foreign aid to benefit the Afghan people.
   Afghanistan ranks as one of the three most corrupt nations on Earth - splitting the crown with Somalia and North Korea, according to Transparency International's 2013 Corruption
   Perceptions Index.
Not that either.

Perhaps it's the impressive economic gains brought about by foreign aid.
   International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Database, April 2013: The first non-African country to be found among the world's poorest nations is Afghanistan.
Nope.

What about social gains?
   According to the 2012 UN Development Program's Human Development Index (HDI), which measures development in relation to national health, education, and income levels, Afghanistan is at the bottom of virtually
   every category, including nutrition, infant, child and maternal mortality, life expectancy and literacy.
Uh-uh

Let's try this one: Afghanistan is too poor a nation to effectively protect what gains have been made and defend itself against Islamic militants without U.S. aid.
   Based on a 2010 NY Times report of a study by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and a Pentagon task force initiated in 2006, mineral deposits in Afghanistan - including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and
   critical industrial metals like lithium - are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the
   world.
Scratch that one off.

There is no justification for spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on Afghan projects after the troop withdrawal.

Should you feel otherwise make your check out to Hamid Karzai and send it to: Hamid Karzai, Office of the President, Kabul, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

March, 2014