How can Taliban afford to pay $300 a month to fighters?
Two of the biggest goals for U.S. forces in Afghanistan are building up Afghan security forces and convincing Taliban fighters to lay down their arms -- and cash could come into play in achieving both.We also need to find out how they are paying these people. Where is the money coming from and how is it delivered? How can we intercept their payroll clerk? Can we trace the source of the money?U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who arrived in Afghanistan Tuesday on an unannounced trip, said money is a key reason why the Afghan government might be having recruiting and retention problems with its security forces.
"One of the eye-openers for us was learning that the Taliban for the most part are better paid than the Afghan security forces, so that's something that we and the Afghans have already taken steps to correct," Gates said. "They're raising the pay of the police and they're putting in place a number of additional incentives and bonuses and so on for the army in terms of combat pay and various things like that, so that clearly will help. I think, frankly, that's the biggest obstacle."
How much money does the Taliban pay?
Around $300, according to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior NATO and U.S. forces commander in Afghanistan.
"There is no set pay scale, but by our intelligence, they are paying the equivalent than $300 a month and that is higher than we are paying Afghan army or police," McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he testified on Tuesday.
The U.S. and Afghan governments are responding by raising the pay for Afghan troops.
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It defies common sense to think that the Taliban can afford this type of payment unless they are getting considerable help from the Saudis or Pakistan. Andrew McCarthy explores that possibility.
The Taliban make a predicted 300 Million US dollars from the lucrative opium trade in Afghanistan. If we plan to intercept this source of income we have to go about it in a way that Afghanistan citizens have somewhere else to work. An estimated 10% of the population there is employed somewhere in the drug trade whether it be growing, refining, selling, etc. If we just go straight in and burn these crops we would just be adding to the poverty fueling anti-west sentiment in Afghanistan which is what the Taliban wan't. Our most likely bet would be to subsidize jobs in Afghanistan so that other jobs provide more income than growing opium does. When that happens no Opium will be grown as other jobs provide more money discouraging people to grow opium.
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