Gazing sadly at the unused machinery worth millions of dollars at his Milli Boot Factory in Kabul, Farhad Saffi is worried that he is witnessing the end of a dream for Afghanistan. The factory was a symbol of local manufacturing and provided jobs to hundreds of people, potentially steering them away from joining insurgent groups. However, a decision by the US government to let the Afghan government handle procurement led to local officials choosing cheaper boots from China and Pakistan, causing Saffi to lose his contracts. Saffi had been promised contracts until 2014 but was given only three months notice of cancellation by the Afghan government, leaving him with $30 million worth of raw material that he cannot use. When the factory opened, Afghan and US generals were eager to have their photos taken with a local success story. US Navy Rear Admiral Kathleen Dussault visited in 2010 to award Saffi, who was only 23 at the time, with a quality certificate for his plant, which was now equipped with high-tech German injection molding and boot-making equipment. The plant was tasked with supplying the Afghan National Security Forces with top-quality boots under contracts worth up to $40 million annually. Saffi's leather boots, which underwent stringent quality testing in the United States, were priced at $62 per pair, compared to Chinese-made boots with imitation leather that cost the Afghan government $22 per pair under a contract for up to 700,000 pairs per year. Despite being asked to sell his boots for $15 per pair by the Afghan government, Saffi explained that the cost of the leather alone was $40. Chinese boots made of fake leather are inexpensive but tend to fall apart quickly. Between 2002 and the end of 2011, $85.5 billion was spent on reconstruction in Afghanistan, with an additional $57 billion in international aid. NATO-led forces, responsible for purchasing supplies for Afghan security forces during the war, began prioritizing local businesses in 2010. This initiative, known as "Afghan First," aimed to boost the economy, create jobs, and support anti-insurgent efforts. Contracts with Afghan companies covered a range of goods, including uniforms, boots, textiles, furniture, tents, software, and transformers, resulting in the creation of 15,000 jobs and saving $650 million on imports for combat-related expenses. However, this amount was still only a small portion of the estimated $200 million spent on the war each day. The Afghan First Policy supports efforts against insurgency by ensuring that local workers have better job opportunities and income, making them less likely to join the estimated 25,000 Afghan Taliban fighters in the country, known as the '$10-a-day Talib'. Some of the 700 workers who were laid off from Saffi's factory are considering joining the Taliban as they see no other options for employment with the impending withdrawal of most NATO combat troops in 2014. They believe reopening the factory is crucial to avoiding this choice. "We have families to support," Ares Khan, 23, expressed as he packed some of the final boots that Milli will produce unless the government has a change of heart. The workers at the factory were earning between $400 and $900 a month, which is significantly higher than the average wage in a country where a third of the 30 million population live below the poverty line. However, many businessmen and workers are concerned that security will decrease once the Westerners leave, taking job opportunities and investment dollars with them to safer locations, as Afghanistan's wealthy have been doing for years. Khan's friend, Khair Mohammad, who moved to Kabul from Ghazni province where NATO forces are currently involved in one of the last major offensives of the war, also believes there is no future outside of the insurgency if the Afghan government stops providing jobs. "There are sixteen people in my family and I am the only one bringing in income." Mohammad mentioned that when he returns to Ghazni, he will need to join the Taliban due to the high living costs in Afghanistan. The decision to give a significant portion of procurement to Afghan authorities was made in March as part of the transition to Afghan security and control, according to US military officials like US Navy Lieutenant Aaron Kakiel, a logistics officer for the NATO-led coalition in the country. Kakiel mentioned that Afghan companies have provided a wide range of supplies and services to the country's security forces, including uniforms, boots, sleeping bags, construction, and IT services. The security forces are expected to reach a total of 352,000 personnel. Milli is not the only company facing challenges due to the shift towards local procurement, as other suppliers of uniforms and equipment are also concerned about losing contracts to competitors from other countries. Another company executive, who preferred to remain anonymous, expressed worries about the uncertainty surrounding their supply contracts after investing significant amounts of money into their business. The executive mentioned that some contracts have already expired, and it is unclear if the government will continue contracting with them or choose to work with companies from other countries. Lieutenant-General Abdul Basir Asafzari, who is in charge of logistics and procurement at the Ministry of Defence, stated that his company had imported materials from the US for products manufactured in Kabul. This would be a problem if they did not receive contracts, as they would have to lay off employees. He mentioned that only 30 percent of the current supply is from Afghan companies, and President Hamid Karzai had directed the military to prioritize local firms. Asafzari explained that Milli had contracts cancelled because they were importing low-quality boots from China and other countries and rebranding them, failing to meet their obligations. Asafzari mentioned that soldiers had complaints about the quality of the boots, but Mohammad Akbar Ahmadzai, from the NGO Building Markets, confirmed that Milli's boots passed US quality tests. Other experts suggested that Milli and others may have faced challenges due to bribery and favoritism in Afghanistan's business environment. Kakiel from NATO pointed out that there may have been misunderstandings regarding contract provisions that only guaranteed one year of sales. In 2011, US agencies contracted over $4 billion to Afghan companies out of a total of $17.3 billion. More than 90 percent of the spending was allocated to products purchased from Afghan sellers (49 percent), construction (28 percent), support services (11 percent), and transportation (6 percent). However, an audit conducted by the US government's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in January revealed that the Afghan First Initiative (AFI) had been marred by insufficient contract solicitation and vetting, as well as limited data on claimed employment benefits. Saffi, who witnessed his family fleeing during Taliban rule and returning in 2002 to find everything destroyed, expressed his lack of confidence in both the US government and the promises of the future under Karzai. He stated, "We tried to do a good job here in this factory, but right now this has happened. The only judgment we can make is that my company and the country are going the same way." He stated that many people in Kabul's business community were feeling anxious due to the unpredictable investment environment and worsening security situation. This feeling was further heightened by a bold Taliban attack on the city center and surrounding areas in mid-April. Saffi mentioned that he now had to hire 30 personal bodyguards to ensure his children's safety when attending school, as well as having police snipers stationed on his home's roof. He likened the struggles his company was facing to the challenges the country was experiencing, stating that he felt like the president of his company while Karzai was the president of the country. He expressed concern about the declining state of his company and the increasing number of workers leaving. The country will experience the same situation. The president needs to govern his nation.