One contract between the Department of Defense and six Afghan trucking companies is worth $2.2 billion, or 10% of the Afghan GDP. Contracts such as these are essential to get logistics and supplies from Baghram AFB to “the Battlespace”: to get bullets and food to all US forces in Afghanistan. And all that trucking requires a lot of security, security that is now run by Afghan companies.
In theory, those companies are well regulated. In reality, US money is being paid to Taliban warlords and corrupt local officials to prevent attacks. “We’re basically being extorted,” explained an American owner of an Afghan shipping company, “If you tell me not to pay these insurgents in this area, the chances of my trucks getting attacked increase exponentially.”
Read more at The Nation
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