In a rundown market here along the road to Afghanistan, you can buy U.S. Army gear stamped with soldiers' names, booklets marked "for official use only," even a manual that illustrates how "jammers" can stop remote-controlled bombs.
The traders are coy about where their stock comes from, but it's clear much of it is stolen from trucks carrying military supplies over the border. Recent raids on warehouses where the looted goods are stockpiled have even turned up photos mailed to U.S. soldiers from loved ones back home.
While the Taliban are blamed for flaming convoys from time to time, sometimes the Taliban are just a convenient target to blame for the theft that makes the markets work:
Reports of Taliban attackers burning trucks loaded with NATO supplies are often just a deception. The cargoes, whether they be fuel or equipment, are often stolen. The vehicle is then burned, police investigators bribed, and an attempt made to convince NATO that it's all the Taliban's (or other unruly tribesman's) fault.
Occasional losses--whether from attacks or theft--won't stop us from supplying our forces in Afghanistan. My worry is that Pakistan will suffer a change of government so radical that they don't care that cutting our supply lines is near suicide for their own government.
Sometimes true believers don't calculate gains versus losses the way we would.
