“Can I get my bribe now?”
This is one of those you can’t make this crap up stories unless you’re writing an over the top, satiric Hollywood movie script.
For months, reports have abounded here that the Afghan mercenaries who escort American and other NATO convoys through the badlands have been bribing Taliban insurgents to let them pass. Then came a series of events last month that suggested all-out collusion with the insurgents.
[...]
Although the investigation is not complete, the officials suspect that at least some of these security companies — many of which have ties to top Afghan officials — are using American money to bribe the Taliban. The officials suspect that the security companies may also engage in fake fighting to increase the sense of risk on the roads, and that they may sometimes stage attacks against competitors.The suspicions raise fundamental questions about the conduct of operations here, since the convoys, and the supplies they deliver, are the lifeblood of the war effort.
“We’re funding both sides of the war,” a NATO official in Kabul said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete, said he believed millions of dollars were making their way to the Taliban.
[...]
The principal goal of the American-led campaign here is to prepare an Afghan state and army to fight the Taliban themselves. The possibility of collusion between the Taliban and Afghan officials suggests that, rather than fighting each another, the two Afghan sides may often cooperate under the noses of their wealthy benefactors.
There’s a 1984 undercurrent to this that’s finally reaching the surface. We’re paying both sides to stage a war so that the war keeps going. War without end, amen.
By the way, this war is now the longest war in our history.
I hope the Chicago crowd doesn’t see this level of corruption as aspirational.
Why don’t we do something very nasty to these fellows… legalize drugs and take away the money that fosters corruption on this scale.
Tobacco sells for less than $2/lb at the farm and is harder to grow than poppies. Let’s de-fund the bad guys.
Get the hell out. The only people we’re impressing by staying there are idiots in this country.
You dorks make me laugh.
So now so many of you think we should get the hell out there eh? I was saying that before we even went in. It’s funny how smart you guys are with hindsight, when in reality very few of us are truly smart and would have avoided the whole mess in the first place. I guess you get what you deserve.
#16, #17. Anon, you’re jumping to conclusions.
Welcome to The Third World.
We continue to spend billions to get our people killed in order to stop people who are our enemies from killing each other!
Is taking the bus really that bad?
DarkSideWater?
Afghanistan is a very poor country. It might be possible that the events described are real at least at some locations. On the broad front I’d say no but try and find out.
I’m not even sure the 100 years war fought by England and France was the longest war.
This is exactly like “Catch 22″. I thought Joseph Heller was joking.
My college professor said that there was a generational divide in appreciating Catch-22, the Best Book in the World: the kiddies in class thought it was humorous, all the older ex-military types thought it was a documentary.
It is a great book among a few others. I found Snowden’s Secret to be quite impactful. Most of the book is about power, but Snowden is about humanity.
#18 Dallas reliably said “which is an Obama policy different than that of ex-President Cheney’s”
You mean the policy called appeasement that he learned from Chamberlain?
The mess in Afghanistan might require two curtsies.
I think the phrase “this war is now the longest war in our history” sums it all up.
Bush was right about one thing: “The War is over.” (SIC!). USA won the wars in Iraq and Afghan years ago. Its nation building that we are failing at. We aren’t willing to kill dissonants so we fail in Iraq, and Afghan is too tribal. Free and Democratic societies require a foundation beyond raising sheep and women as if they were cattle.
You can build a house with just a hammer, but not if you pound everything with it.
#29,30: One of my all time favorites, too. I remember reading the book before the film came out. Same with MASH. It wasn’t until I met a guy in college who had been in Vietnam (my draft number was too high to get called, so no first hand experience) and told me stories that made both seem like children’s books that I realized they weren’t just comedies.
For some reason, despite some of the bizarre things that have been reported in Iraq and Afghanistan over the years, I have a feeling there won’t be the equivalent coming out of either war this time.
CREATIVE commercialism, at WORK.
CREATE a demand for a product BEFORE you sell the solution.
Unc Dave==what makes a book great is its universality. The plot, themes, and characters of Catch-22 set in WW2 are immediately translatable to any other war at any other time and place. Universality.
Will some author rewrite Catch-22 placed in Iraq or Afghan? Isn’t this very thread one chapter?
I assumed this was happening already.
Why? Because that’s the way it works there. Everybody works two, three or more sides of any deal.
Remember how Bush “out sources” bin Laden’s former allies to drive out the Taliban? The war lords took America’s millions and then they let bin Laden walk away. You can bet they also got money from bin Laden, too. And probably from someone else, as well!
It’s how the culture of that region works and it’s not shameful for them — it’s just savvy business.
Most Americans can’t begin to outsmart South and Central Asians in a business deal — let alone a scam. We are bush league compared to them.
I honestly believe that Osama bin Laden simply outsmarted Bush Jr — he WANTED to bait America into invading Afghanistan and Bush was stupidly suckered hook, line and sinker.
If Obama doesn’t have a clear and firm exit strategy from Afghanistan, he’ll be bin Laden’s sucker, too.
>> Mextli said, on June 8th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
>> You mean the policy called appeasement that he learned from Chamberlain?
You guys evoke Chamberlain every time you have a load of crap to sell.
I don’t remember one conservative crying “Chamberlain” when Bush and Cheney started paying millions of our tax dollars to Muqtada al-Sadr to stop killing our soldiers.
Yeah, here we go with yet another Tar Baby for Western militarism, stuck fast in ancient tribal sinkholes again. When will they ever learn?