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From Major Randy Schmeling, a 43-year-old Army National Guardsman who commands the American police mentoring teams in Ghazni, on the endemic corruption in Afghanistan:

Right now, there is no meritocracy here. It’s, “Hey, your sister has a pretty mouth — do you want to be a general?”

There’s nothing in this article to be surprised about if you’ve been paying even the slightest attention to Afghanistan.  But you should read it anyway, just to remind yourself all over again of just what we’re up against there.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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