OVO

I can think of two ways to fund the Taliban. First, you can do it by accident. The Evening Echo reported on 13 April 2008: “Afghanistan’s intelligence chief said today a coalition helicopter accidentally dropped food and weapons in a remote area of southern Afghanistan where Taliban fighters recovered the supplies. Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, told members of parliament the supplies were intended for police at a checkpoint in the southern province of Zabul.” That’s one way to fund the Taliban, by accident.

The other way to fund the Taliban is to do so deliberately. The Los Angeles Times reported on 22 May 2001: “Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously. That’s the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. [...] Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.”

Say now, didn’t something happen involving Osama bin Laden a few months after the Bush administration gave the Taliban $43 million? I can’t remember. Anyway, there are at least two ways to fund the Taliban. The Bush administration has been involved in both.