Important post-Memorial Day reading.

Note the bit about how the defunding of the NGO development projects by the global recession and an Arab Spring-inspired collapse in jihadi funding has done more to knock the insurgency in the head than years of red-handed war. Especially note how we were funding both sides of the war by letting Taliban facilitators sleaze their way into subcontracting both NGO and military development projects, and then claiming the benefits as Talib-provided. So much for "soft power projection", eh?

Via the usual source.