Back in October, in the NYT:

The average Afghan spends one-fifth of his income on bribes.

Now, Dexter Filkins reports from Kabul:

Governments in developing countries are often riddled with corruption. But Afghans say the corruption they see now has no precedent, in either its brazenness or in its scale.

Ghafar said he routinely paid bribes to the police who threatened to hinder his passage through Kabul, sometimes several in a day.

Nowhere is the scent of corruption so strong as in the Kabul neighborhood of Sherpur.

Often, the corruption here is blatant.

Follow the money, and then ask:

What happens when the militants you have been encouraging grow too strong and set their sights on Pakistan itself?

Filkins' The Forever War was published last year to wide acclaim:

... searing, unforgettable ... amazing characters and astonishing scenes ... visceral ... brilliant, fearless ...

From an excerpt:

There was no law anymore, no courts, nothing — there was nothing at all.

Finally, from a few months ago:

We're not going to win this war.