Afghan truckers a forgotten front in a war growing deadlier by the day

[rug]

Rob Taylor and Hamid Shalizi
Reuters
11:32 p.m. CDT, July 28, 2012

KHOSH GOMBAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - In the cabins of their "jingle" trucks flamboyant with tinsel baubles and painted tiger patterns as they move NATO's war supplies, Habibullah thinks he and other drivers are becoming a forgotten front in an Afghan war growing more vicious.

From a dusty truck park midway between Kabul and the Pakistan border, and under the constant thump of helicopters from Jalalabad airbase over the road, Habibullah moves food and military materiel across the Taliban's eastern heartland, from Nuristan to the former al Qaeda cave stronghold of Tora Bora.

"We worry about our fate when NATO leaves, because the Taliban also call us the infidels. For them, we are not just the enemy, but also traitors," said the soft spoken 23-year-old, who contributes seven trucks to a cooperative with five owners.

It is a thankless and increasingly deadly job, and one so mired in graft that the drivers see a fraction of the cash paid by U.S. military paymasters, with the rest skimmed by middlemen or even going into the hands of insurgents for "protection".

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-afghanistan-convoysbre86s01u-20120728,0,7998899.story

[inthemiddle2]

1. We never should have gone there

and I don't know why we are still in afghanistan. My son who is under employed wanted to join the military. Coming from a military family I wanted to embrace the thought, but I can't. I told him there is no pride in killing people/children in anybody's world. Does anyone remember why we went to afghanistan? I never thought my country would have another vietnam. We have learned nothing from our past.

[rug]

2. Welcome to DU. And you are, sadly, correct.