Criminal investigators are examining allegations that Afghan security firms have been extorting as much as $4 million a week from contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars and then funneling the spoils to warlords and the Taliban.

If the allegations are true, the U.S. would be unintentionally financing the enemy and undermining international efforts to stabilize the country.

The payments reportedly end up in insurgent hands through a $2.1 billion Pentagon contract to transport food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan. To ensure safe passage through dangerous areas, the trucking companies make payments to local security firms with ties to the Taliban or warlords who control the roads. If the payments aren't made, the convoys will be attacked, according to a U.S. military document detailing the allegations being examined by investigators.

cont.

why dont they just pay them off, and call the whole thing off (the war that is), would be cheaper

Currently, US operations in Afghanistan cost taxpayers about $4 billion a month. That comes to roughly $133 million per day, or $5.5 million per hour

My link

cost of war counter

Yeah that whole story was on the news a couple of nights ago here in the States...

Would almost be funny if we were not hemorrhaging money ...highest unemployment since who knows when...

more homeless & tent cities than anyone care to admit.. Foreclosures & walk aways ...

banks closing at alarming rates 150 last year & I think we are up to 83 more already this year..

FDIC: Failed Bank List

No problem though right? right?

Just hope all the cheerleaders know what they are trading....

I think most of the time we give money to a country or someone chunks of it goes places we would rather it didn't. It's kind of like giving a begger on the street money. Most of the time it either goes to drugs/booze or to the man controlling the begger and the begger sees little of it.

If I were POTUS I would pull all our troops out of everyplace. Let the world kill each other. I would also make it clear that next time, instead of going to war, we will just nuke all major population centers in the country in question. Which country would that be? What if it isn't clear? Let's just say they had better hope I got up on the right side of the bed that morning. The whole world hates us anyway no matter what we do so why not? Just to prove how serious I was, I would nuke Mali because that ref disallowed the game winning goal last week against Slovenia.

I think most of the time we give money to a country or someone chunks of it goes places we would rather it didn't. It's kind of like giving a begger on the street money. Most of the time it either goes to drugs/booze or to the man controlling the begger and the begger sees little of it.

If I were POTUS I would pull all our troops out of everyplace. Let the world kill each other. I would also make it clear that next time, instead of going to war, we will just nuke all major population centers in the country in question. Which country would that be? What if it isn't clear? Let's just say they had better hope I got up on the right side of the bed that morning. The whole world hates us anyway no matter what we do so why not? Just to prove how serious I was, I would nuke Mali because that ref disallowed the game winning goal last week against Slovenia.

im sure most of us are glad youre not POTUS, easy on that trigger finger mate!

Yeah, you might have to develop a serious non fossil fuel engine and that would be the finish of political contributions from the oil companies.

Didn’t any of you functional illiterates read. “Catch 22?”

Or perhaps some history about why that British company, Vickers started WW I?

And does any one really believe McChrystal is a brain trust.

Most generals are idiots. Look at the behavior of Patton and MacArther. Try googling worst general of WW II and Bernard Montgomery keeps popping up.

War is always a clusterf**k and the people at the top are the head clusterf***kers.

The only people who know less about war than the generals running the war are the politicians running the generals.

To keep this Thai oriented, I was at Utapao when the B-52 were flying out of there. Ran the same mission twice with moderate success. Same pattern, same location, same entrance and exit headings.

Them North Vietnamese weren’t real smart but even they could see a pattern emerging. Even the cooks at Utapao could see the third mission was a suicide run. I even think the dogs and whores cried for the boys as they took off that morning because everyone knew they weren’t coming back. And they didn’t.

Do generals in general piss me off? You bet. They killed too many of my friends. I never worried about Ho Chi Minh. I always worried about my commanding officer trying to kill me to further his career or line his pockets. That is what war is all about in case you civilian folks didn’t realize it.

 I would nuke Mali because that ref disallowed the game winning goal last week against Slovenia.

Just keep in mind that it might not be worth firebombing New Zealand for just one raving lunatic. 

 I would nuke Mali because that ref disallowed the game winning goal last week against Slovenia.

Just keep in mind that it might not be worth firebombing New Zealand for just one raving lunatic. 

I would nuke Mali because that ref disallowed the game winning goal last week against Slovenia.

Just keep in mind that it might not be worth firebombing New Zealand for just one raving lunatic.

Great to know that someone in NZ is such a thorn in the side.

Very satisfying.

"Thorn in the side" must have a different meaning in New Zealand. We would probably just use the term thick.