In early 2009, as President Hamid Karzai scanned the landscape for potential partners to run in his re-election bid, he was approached from an unusual corner: a bank.

Read at: the NewYorkTimes.com 

The Afghan version of the Iraq Awakening – paying the opposition not to fight – is not working. There are few Taliban fighters taking the United States up on its offers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/world/asia/07taliban.html?hpw

Following in the United States’ footsteps, the Afghan government moved to bail out a failing bank fearing the entire corrupt system would fail. According to The New York Times, the bankers at Kabul Bank had unorthodox financial dealing that included lending tens of millions of dollars to themselves and government officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/world/asia/01kabul.html?hp

Run on Kabul Bank after the government steps in. Nervous account holders wanted to withdraw their deposits from the country’s largest private bank despite government assurances that their money was safe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090101620.html?hpid=topnews

The Associated Press reports that US contractors in Iraq squandered billions of taxpayer dollars in construction projects.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/29/AR2010082901239.html

On the eve of President Obama’s address to the nation about the Iraq War, seven U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by two roadside bombs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/world/asia/31afghan.html?_r=1&hp

The Navy has proven over the decades it will buy just about anything a defense contractor can think to sell them. That is why the Navy now has six 13 foot long ten foot high unmanned helicopter drones based on its ships. Recently one of the drones went AWOL and headed right for Washington, DC’s restricted airspace. Yeah the drone went rogue. The good news is the Navy managed to land the contraption before it harmed anyone. It could have been worse, say a CIA drone with a hellfire missile on board that decided it wasn’t coming in from the cold. You can read more at http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/51266-us-navy-drone-goes-awol-over-dc