NYT photo: Payola Day in Marja, April 2009,

With the lion’s share coming from the US, the world put at least $100,000,000 into Marja and environs half a century ago — snd that worked out so well. After seizing Marja from the Taliban last year, the US couldn’t wait to start throwing money down the Marja drain again and started paying “hundreds of thousands of dollars a week” for Afghan hearts and minds. Guess what? We’re still paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a week in Marja for Afghan hearts and minds — “$500,000 every ten days in a poor rural community of 250,000,” according to the Economist last month. (Afghan hearts and minds have gotten soo-o expensive.)

Um, doesn’t Congress have something or other to do with the nation’s purse strings? Responsibility…? Or has the American taxpayer become a cash cow as recklessly used and abused as the (American-taxpayer-funded) Bank of Kabul?

I think Bernie Madoff needs some US government officials for company.