Michael Hughes: The U.S. reconstruction watchdog’s latest report assessing corruption in Afghanistan reads like something ripped from the pages of a Ludlum spy thriller, replete with malign actors, drug kingpins, predatory warlords, and crooked politicians. Archetypal CIA agents are seen running around with bags – literally bags – of cold hard cash, paying off a slew of unsavory characters to do the U.S. government’s bidding. Unfortunately, this was no work of fiction but a grim picture of reality, amounting to one of the most comprehensive and scathing indictments of America’s role in breeding and propagating the endemic corruption that continues to plague Afghanistan. Click here to read more.