The Biden argument has been that we can and should dispatch over a hundred million dollars of humanitarian aid and that we can safely fund and stock aid efforts in Afghanistan because somehow the Taliban won’t get their hands on it.
That fiction has quickly fallen apart.
Taliban militants pulled guns on United Nations aid workers and took off with 3.7 tonnes of Australian flour meant to be delivered to some of Afghanistan’s poorest families as the war-torn country faces a catastrophic famine.
The Australian Government donated the vital baking staple through the World Food Program as part of a $100 million handout which also includes other UN agencies.
This isn’t especially surprising because it’s how Islamic terrorists routinely operate.
And, I noted, UN agencies have been paying protection money to the Taliban for quite some time.
The Taliban had an extensive and sophisticated tax collection network long before they took Kabul which included all the usual elements of bureaucracy, registration, certificates, and assessments. They even have “NGO coordinators” who work with non-profit groups.
As an Economist article noted, “Britain’s Foreign Office had to remind ngos not to pay taxes to the Taliban.”
The Taliban at one point provided a list of non-profits that had registered with their Commission for the Arrangement and Control of Companies and Organisations. The group “included UN agencies, national and international NGOs and human rights organisations” including those that “rely on funding from a wide range of sources, including both the UN and the US government”.
That was back in 2013 when the Taliban had far less power and were less intimidating.
Humanitarian aid, either directly or through UN and local agencies, will be taxed by the Taliban. The Taliban will seize materials when they choose, or they’ll tax the organizations involved.
Or both.
Sending aid to Afghanistan is funding terrorism. Period.
Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield
