Something to Think About: Protection Payments to the Taliban
I came across this headline on a few sources, but I will use NPR’s: Gold Star Families Sue Defense Contractors, Alleging They Funded The Taliban.
This story seems like it should be bigger, much bigger, but I have not seen a lot of people discussing it. As will likely be usual, let me give a few bullet points to recap the story, and then I will discuss (again these are lines/quotes from the NPR article above):
“More than 100 Gold Star families are suing several major defense contractors, alleging they made illegal "protection payments" to the Taliban — thereby funding the Taliban's insurgency efforts that killed or wounded thousands of Americans in Afghanistan.”
U.S. has warned defense contractors that protection payments are against the law, but according to the lawsuit, the practice has proliferated because defense contractors feel it's a cost of doing business.
According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Taliban in 2005 began systematically approaching international businesses operating in Afghanistan, and offered them a choice: pay up, or else.
Barnett Rubin, associate director of NYU's Center on International Cooperation, tells NPR that paying insurgents is "pretty universal" among defense contractors. It's "the only way to get the supplies through, so the choice is funding the insurgency or not supplying the troops," says Rubin, who formerly served as the senior adviser to the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the U.S. Department of State.
The basic point of the article, and the lawsuit, is stating that Western companies are making large profits in Afghanistan and not caring how their actions are endangering US troops. It comes down to those three little words: “the bottom line”.
By all accounts, the paying off of the thuggish Taliban groups seems like it is undoubtedly happening. Look at that last bolded quote above. Think about that for a second. Doesn’t this seem like these actions are likely cancelling each other out? What are we doing here?
I guess it should not come as a shocking surprise that this kind of thing happens, but doesn’t it make you a little queasy to read it? Maybe I have missed it, but I feel as if this story should be on the front page of every news outlet, and on the minds and tongues of every one of us. If these allegations are true, and the payoffs are doing what it looks like they are doing, then why are we not yelling from the rooftops on this matter? That includes me.
It also brings up the issue of whether the US should be relying on for-profit defense contractors in war zones. This has been going on for quite some time, but that does not make it good or right. These companies could have underlying reasons for their actions, actions that may not be on the same page as what the US military is trying to accomplish in these areas.
I am not saying I have the answers to this, or if there are even any answers, just...something to think about…
-Houston