Quite a scene in downtown Kabul today:

Fears over the future of ailing Kabul Bank grew violent Wednesday as state police beat back crowds of frustrated Afghan government workers attempting to withdraw their salaries on the final day before a four-day national holiday.

More than 500 government employees, including local police officers, Afghan National Army soldiers and teachers, mobbed the sole Kabul Bank branch that remained open, only to be kept at bay by armed police from the country’s National Directorate of Security. The crowds pressed in so closely that the NDS police started punching and shoving people to keep them back. The guards also threatened to destroy the cameras of journalists attempting to take pictures of the scene. A cameraman was punched before jumping into a car and speeding off.

“This is shameful that these simple police officers are beating up more high-ranking officers,” said Abdul Hanan, a policeman who had come to collect his $450 monthly salary. “We are educated people, not animals. We need to get our salaries. I have worked in more than 20 provinces, but I am standing out here unable to get my salary.”

As mentioned here, many of the government workers seeking to take out cash are security personnel, who clashed with other security personnel on the streets today. How many of those police officers will return to work tomorrow?

The slow trickle of news about corruption and fraud at the heart of Kabul Bank continues unabated. Hamid Karzai’s brother made millions off of sketchy land deals in Dubai financed by Kabul Bank. Karzai’s brother got the brother of another shareholder on the Presidential ticket at Karzai’s running mate. In exchange, Kabul Bank gave millions to Karzai’s campaign. The web of connections and dirty intersections between money and power cannot be ignored.

Of course, it’s a nice parallel to the current situation in other oligopolies, like, oh just to pick at random, America. But here in Afghanistan, we have a power elite not only robbing the population blind, but doing so while the country exists in a state of occupation. The dysfunction of Kabul Bank resonates, then, as a metaphor for ownership of the entire country, and if the citizens of Kabul sour on the NATO mission and its local partner, the entire enterprise is doomed further.