An American Lion

I'm not certain, but isn't there a provision in the bailout of US banks that also helps gun smugglers in Pakistan? At a market not far from the Afghan border, smugglers, scavengers and merchants trade in the debris of battle:

"Do not say you are from the U.S.A.," is the kind advice offered by Baz Mohammed, a vendor with nearly a decade of experience hawking smuggled goods to anyone willing to pay. Taliban fighters sometimes peruse these stalls. "We are scared of them. They tell us, 'Don't sell American things. They are our enemy.' That's why we can't write on our shop, 'U.S.A. goods.' They come at any time and check what we're doing."

Mohammed, an Afridi tribesman from the Khyber district along the border, sits on a crumpled American flag cushioning his dusty swivel chair, behind a cracked-glass case from which he removes a U.S. Army Velcro name tag -- of some poor "Davis" -- and a large "Made in the U.S.A." socket wrench that he claims is from a Black Hawk helicopter tool kit. He also sells gun holsters, gas masks, Sound Guard two-color disposable foam earplugs, Black & Decker power drills, extension cords, bolt cutters, welding glasses, corkscrews and a stand-up telescope. He does not feel like showing off the American firearms, but he insists they are not far away.

All this clutter might suggest a thriving trade, but Mohammed insists it's the opposite.

"Business is zero these days," he said, sipping green tea out of a porcelain dish. Earlier in the war, he could make more than $1,200 a day. Now he is happy with $60. "It's now much more difficult to bring something in the old illegal ways."

The vendors at Sitara Market do not like to spell out in detail their illegal ways, or explain how they acquire their loot. Some goods, they say, trickle over the border from what Taliban fighters scavenge off the battlefield, or from theft along the military supply route through the Khyber Pass. There are black-market deals in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and donations flipped for profit.

"Sometimes we go to Afghanistan, we buy a container, we don't know what is inside, some mixed things," Mohammed said vaguely. His story of the provenance of one U.S. military weapon he sold seemed unlikely even to him. "Someone told me the soldier dropped his pistol and it was picked up by someone on a road."

How is this even news? I'm certain there were merchants like this in France during the first World War, that there were scavengers picking up all sorts of things during the Civil War, and that there were people making money from lost equipment that fell off Roman soldiers as they marched along the highway. Is this story supposed to scandalize our military and show them to be wasteful and careless? It's war--things get lost. Things get picked up. Things get sold.

What should thrill the average American is to discover that there is capitalism in Pakistan on the frontier, albeit, one driven by a curious form of supply and demand. We can count on spreading freedom only if the people embrace capitalism, so I would definitely support the idea of subsidizing Pakistani battlefield thieves with taxpayer dollars.