FUBAR

[A] report, by veteran investigative correspondent Aram Roston, asserts that US military contractors charged with assisting US forces in Afghanistan are actually funding the groups killing American soldiers. Roston describes a protection racket similar to that of the mafia, in which contractors pay the Taliban "protection money" not to attack them.

"In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes," Roston writes. "It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban.

  Raw Story

But what better way to ensure perpetual war?

Mike Hanna, a manager for Afghan American Army Services, a trucking firm, told Roston that paying off the Taliban was a necessary evil.

"We're basically being extorted," Hanna is quoted as saying. "Where you don't pay, you're going to get attacked. We just have our field guys go down there, and they pay off who they need to.

So why are we wasting lives and bombs? (A British General recently asked the same question, and the Italians have already answered.)

BTW: gasoline is expensive for us over there.

A recent estimate from the Pentagon found that the government spends some $400 a gallon for gasoline in Afghanistan when all transport costs are included.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.