Dexter Filkins writes that the U.S. taxpayer is "inadvertently" funding warlords in Afghanistan:
At the heart of the problem, the investigation found, is that the American military pays trucking companies to move its supplies across Afghanistan â?? and leaves it up to the trucking companies to protect themselves. The trucking companies in turn pay warlords and commanders to provide security.
These subcontracts, the investigation found, are handed out without any oversight from the Department of Defense, despite clear instructions from Congress that the department provide such oversight. The report states that military officers in Kabul had little idea whom the trucking companies were paying to provide security or how much they spent for it, and had rarely if ever inspected a convoy to find out.
So we're bribing incentivizing warlords to let trucks navigate the country. Could we do the same to keep al Qaeda from setting up terrorist camps?
