Taleban get payed to allow resupplying of Western troops

[Skybird]

This says more about the tactical situation on the ground than a thousand analytical comments.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5327683.ece

The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach Nato bases in the south of the country.
Contracts to supply British bases and those of other Western forces with fuel, supplies and equipment are held by multinational companies.
However, the business of moving supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi to British, US and other military contingents in the country is largely subcontracted to local trucking companies. These must run the gauntlet of the increasingly dangerous roads south of Kabul in convoys protected by hired gunmen from Afghan security companies.
The Times has learnt that it is in the outsourcing of convoys that payoffs amounting to millions of pounds, including money from British taxpayers, are given to the Taleban

"Trapped in the Afghan maze."

Personally, I find the mere fact that the military these days does no longer supplies itself or runs the transportation, but engages private contractors to supply them, hair-raising.