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I’m not sure why this is news. It is the culturally normal response to the situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

Historically the Silk Road caravans would hire the local tribesmen for protection when they would pass through the area. If they hired the protection then they were not attacked. If they did not hire the protection then the unemployed proctors would attack them. If guards tried to work outside their area then the next tribe would attach the caravan, not only for the profit of the attack but to attack the neighbouring tribe which strayed too far.

The same exists today. I once drove from Kabul to Peshawar Pakistan. Once you leave Afghanistan you cannot be accompanied by the normal guards but have to hire guards from the taxi and guard boss on the other side of the border. The number of guards is supposedly set by the threat level but is in actual fact set by the traffic so that the guards get the same income; lower traffic then you need more guards in your car so that income stays the same. You cannot get a taxi without a guard and if you say had your own people meet you at the boarder then you would have to either hire guards or risk being attacked by the same people you did not hire.

A lot of the people called Taliban in the media and ISAF reports are actually simple warlords and form a protection system that would do a Mafia chieftain proud. The money paid for the protection is historically similar to the Silk Road caravan fees for “protection”.

The solution is to develop a sustainable economy that is not based on violence but instead rule of law. This will take a lot longer and a deeper commitment than the various aid agencies operating in country are willing to spend. It will take a long time to become self sustaining and that will not satisfy the short term outlooks of the politicians who fund these efforts and the equally short term outlooks of the people who elect them.