http://www.theglobalist.com/nor/richter/2002/02-01-02.shtml
News reports indicate that IMF officials advising Afghanistan want to delay the introduction of the new local currency. Could it be that — by "dollarizing" Afghanistan — the International Monetary Fund is secretly scheming to make that country a protectorate of the United States?
(...) The 51st state?
Bringing the dollar now to Afghanistan would eventually make the country America's responsibility. It might also bring neighboring Pakistan into the U.S. dollar club as well — as Afghanistan's dollars slip across the border. In fact, dollarization might become a regional trend.
That would be quite an irony indeed. The dollar is already the de facto currency in the Gulf States. Afghanistan and Pakistan would only be following suit.
The Europeans, for their part, hope that dollarizing Afghanistan will force the Bush Administration to put up more of its own dollars — which will help rebuild the country's non-existent economic and social infrastructure.
After all, at a recent Tokyo Conference, Washington offered less than $300 million in aid commitment for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Against that backdrop, for the United States to give war-torn Afghanistan its very own currency would represent a more potent gift than the aid funds pledged to the country. And, of course, letting Afghanistan have the buck might allow the United States to realize a true geopolitical aim — quietly keeping the euro out of Central Asia.