A recent investigative piece by Aram Roston in The Nation magazine digs into the story of  US contractors, paid by the US Military, funnel money to the Taliban for protecting US convoys transporting everything they need:  their toilet paper, fuel, water, guns, everything they need, from Bagram Air Base, an hour north of Kabul, to the rest of the country.  They protect them from insurgent attacks.

And it has all become an acceptable fact of life to the military, just a practical solution to the logistical problems of protecting their convoys.  It does, however, seem that some are uncomfortable with the fact that they know that much of the contract money goes to the Taliban to make war on the US soldiers. 

Over the summer, with a 'surge' of soldiers expected, the military increased the budget for transport contract with the Big Six companies to $2.2 billion, allegedly 10% of the GNP of Afghanistan.

The article chronicles the main characters of some of the companies, including NCL Holdings, whose head is the American-educated Hamed Wardak, son of Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.  Hamed was educated at Georgetown University, did an internship at the American Enterprise Institute, and was a buddy of Jeanne Kirkpatrick.  Major players in the Corporation are former CIA operatives.

The links of relatives and alliances and histories and associations of the Protection companies and corporations are almost too fun to read.  We can find it impossible to be shocked any longer at the ironies of profit and war, and expedience and agenda.  Lots of us came of age during the Iran-Contra hearings, and still get to watch Neo-con hero Ollie on our teevees today.  NCL's Host Nation Trucking incorporated in the US in 2007.  An advisor to their board is former CIA officer Milton Beardon, who testified before the  Senate Foreign Relations Committee  hearings recently.  From Roston's piece:

Bearden is an important voice on Afghanistan issues; in October he was a witness before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Senator John Kerry, the chair, introduced him as "a legendary former CIA case officer and a clearheaded thinker and writer." It is not every defense contracting company that has such an influential adviser.

Milo Minderbender, the lovable, affable Machiavellian anti-hero profiteer in Joseph Heller's stellar Catch-22 would be so damned proud!  His philosophy was that someone  was going to make a lot of money in the war, so it may as well be he. His project started innocently enough, importing eggs from Malta for the soldiers and brass at his base, and soon discovered he was an excellent wheeler-dealer, and his business grew. As he faced increased objections to his perfidy from the troops, he created a syndicate, M&M Enterprises with the approval of his commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart.   When he stole the fliers' life preservers or their parachutes for the silk, he left bogus certificates in their place.  Eventually Milo's syndicate bought planes that ruled the skies.  The climax came when he contracted with the Germans to bomb and strafe  their own base on Corsica. 

Heller published it in 1961; he was a bombardier during World War II, and saw the military-industrial-complex up close and personal.  Catch 22 was dark comedy then, but it helps now to cause us to howl about this new piece of news from Afghanistan.

It's just right.  The US funds the Taliban.   Staying alive in the midst of war is important; some are 'shameless opportunists.'  (grin)