Word: centralizes
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...Obama has blamed a large part of Afghanistan's deterioration on the Bush Administration's focus on Iraq. "In fact - as should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain - the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was," he said in a major foreign policy speech on July 15th. "It is unacceptable that almost seven years after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on our soil, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large. If another attack on our homeland comes, it will likely come from the same region...
...Naturally, this drama has its own uniquely local elements that may (or may not) help make more sense of the universal stakes in play. The Italian twists to the storyline include bottles of Ferrarelle and San Pellegrino mineral water placed outside the central Milan cathedral as symbols of the nourishment that many believe she should continue to receive; a public letter from the country's equivalent of Elvis Presley; the die-hard right-to-die Radical party rallying support for the family's choice to let their daughter die; and, of course, the best-known and most looming presence...
...invasion had toppled the Taliban regime, there was no electricity in the 400 miles (640 km) between Herat and Kabul. The villages along the route were led by tribal chiefs, mullahs or guerrilla commanders who had little to do with their neighbors, let alone with the central government. Most districts that I visited had no schools or clinics. As a civil servant - I was on leave from my job in Britain's Foreign Office - I was surprised by how poor Afghanistan was and how ungoverned...
There has been dramatic progress in many other parts of the country. Since 2001, 6.4 million children have been educated, and there has been a massive increase in access to basic health care. Western funding and assistance have helped create an efficient central bank, a stable currency, an elected parliament, telecommunications and infrastructure projects and a credible army. Some foreign aid goes directly into the hands of elected councils in over 20,000 villages, allowing them to initiate their own rural-development projects. Many of the villages I visited six years ago now have electricity and access to clinics...
Many of these problems cannot be solved by the West, however many billions we spend or thousands of troops we deploy. Our money and expertise, which have helped make the central bank and the Afghan National Army professional and competent, cannot prevent the widespread corruption in the police and legal system. A central bank is relatively small, dealing with narrow issues such as currency and interest rates on which international economists can offer practical, technical advice. An army is able to develop its esprit de corps and drills in barracks, isolated from the broader society. But policemen and judges...