Isn't Afghanistan Great?

How would you like to win the lottery for $360 million? Not interested? How about if the fix was in and you would be guaranteed to win? For just one buck, you would win $360, million? Still not interested? You're not convincing me. Actually just such a thing is going on. It's an ongoing lottery win in which the winnings continue to grow. The $360,000,000 figure was from last winter, so it surely is much higher now. I'm talking about the amount of money the U.S. government is paying to Afghan contractors that's winding up in the hands of  criminals, insurgents and corrupt Afghan political elites. Of course the government paid out $31 billion to the contractors so the amount stolen is just a small part. At least that's what it's being called. Small amount? $360 million? Small? Now that's not what I would have called it. There's a number of names I might have attached to that much money. But I can't imagine ever calling it "small". See, here's what happens. Uncle Sam pays an Afghan company to haul fuel as an example. So they haul the fuel, but some of the money is paid to insurgents not to attack the tankers. It's just like an old time movie where the gangsters collect protection money from the merchants so their stores don't get robbed. Or another scenario is where the contractor pays the Afghan politician a bunch of money to lock in the contract. Ever hear of such a thing? You have? Oh, you mean like here in America. Well, yes, except that in Afghanistan, all politicians are on the take, pretty much. The question is, what can we do about it. Well, about the only thing we can do is pack up and come home.