大象传媒

Did the West get it wrong economically and financially in Afghanistan and Iraq? Has the US missed out on playing a significant business role in Iraq? And why has the West failed to head off Afghanistan's reliance on poppy cultivation?

Manuela Saragosa speaks to Paul Brinkley, who spent five years trying to turn around the economies of Iraq and Afghanistan, and reported directly to the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Together with hundreds of business volunteers, Paul Brinkley's mission was to kick-start the private sector in the two countries. He tells us why he thinks the US missed out in Iraq, and why he's pessimistic about Afghanistan's economic outlook.

Plus, we hear from a poppy farmer in Afghanistan. And Torek Farhadi, a former adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, tell us why he thinks the pessimists are wrong about his country.