LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Im Linda Wertheimer in for Steve Inskeep who's been reporting from Pakistan. He'll be back tomorrow.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And Im Renee Montagne.
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are offering a sobering critique of U.S. nation-building in Afghanistan. A report out this morning, after a two year investigation, finds that the billions of dollars spent on developing areas cleared of the Taliban have had only limited success. The report notes that basically a wartime economy, fueled by both military and civilian aid, is unsustainable. And it warns that Afghanistan could be plunged into a deep recession once foreign troops leave in 2014.
WERTHEIMER: Afghans, the Senate report says, are often unable to spend US funds appropriately because of lack of security, abject poverty and weak institutions. At the same time, it recommends that aid be approved over several years so there is less political pressure to spend a lot of money quickly.
The policy review was prepared by the Democratic majority staff of the Foreign Relations Committee. It urges the Obama administration to rethink how it is spending money in Afghanistan, and to improve oversight.
MONTAGNE: Elsewhere in the program this morning, I speak with Lieutenant General William Caldwell, commander of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan. He speaks of the difficult work of training Afghan soldiers when nearly all the recruits there can't read. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.