A 22-year old kid and his 25-year old ex-masseuse brother run a company called AEY, Inc. They won a rather sizable contract to supply the Afghan National Army with ammunition for their fight against the Taliban. Along the way they developed a relationship with shady international arms dealers, 40-year old Albanian surplus bullets, and a penchant for rotting Chinese metal.
CJ Chivers has the whole story, which spans several continents. This is, sadly, not atypical for how these wars have been conducted—that is to say, downright sloppily.
Update: Kip has some more thoughts on how this is emblematic of the military’s many systemic failures in Afghanistan.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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