When does a war become an occupation?

depends on what you mean by "occupation." Do you mean staying there to control the situation, or seeing it as a way of making a killing?

I don't see how anyone could find Bradley Manning to be a traitor for revealing to the American people that the war in Afghanistan is TOTALLY CORRUPT.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/united-states-military-funding-tali...

Report: U.S. Bribes to Protect Convoys Are Funding Taliban Insurgents
By NICK SCHIFRIN
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 22, 2010

The United States military is helping fund both sides of the war in Afghanistan, knowingly financing a mafia-like collection of warlords and some of the very insurgents American troops are battling, according to Afghan and American officials and a new Congressional study released today.

The military has turned to private trucking companies to transport the vast majority of materiel it needs to fight the war -- everything from bullets to Gatorade, gas to sandbags -- and in turn, the companies are using American money to pay, among others, the Taliban to try to guarantee the trucks' safe passage, the reports charge.

Trucking executives and investigators from the House Subcommittee on National Security say the United States military knew it was helping fund the people it was fighting but did nothing about it, choosing to satisfy short-term delivery requirements and ignore fears that payments to the enemy help perpetuate Afghanistan's long-term security problems.

… Two American trucking executives, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say the payment structure goes beyond that depicted by the House report, detailing an intricate system whereby the American military is handing over billions of dollars to companies that bribe insurgents, warlords, road bandits and even corrupt Afghan police and soldiers to hold their fire as the trucks roll past dangerous stretches of highway.

In one case, a security company is paying a local commander who funnels American money directly to the Quetta Shura, the Taliban leadership council based in Pakistan, according to officials in Pakistan.

… "Basically it's a protection extortion racket," Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), who chairs the House subcommittee, said in an interview with ABC News. "Tony Soprano would be proud of it."

The House's 85-page report, titled "Warlord, Inc." was released as doubts about the war crescendo in Washington.

… In this landlocked country, the United States has turned to eight private trucking companies to deliver the materiel and split a $2.16 billion Host Nation Trucking contract.

… Given that convoys are often as large as 300 trucks, a single trip might make a security company more than half a million dollars.

… "One senior Department of Defense official in Afghanistan stated that there have been significant discussions within the Department [of Defense] of the problem of protection payments to local warlords and the Taliban, but no action has been taken" today's report says. "In [the senior official's] view, the contracting officers with responsibility for the contract 'intentionally turn a blind eye to the problem and refuse to look past the prime [contractor] to see how the security subcontractors operate -- hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.'"

… Ruhullah is employed by Watan Risk Management, owned by a cousin and close confidant of President Hamid Karzai. He in turn employs hundreds of guards to defend 3,500 trucks every month – by far the largest share of the security companies working with the Host Nation Trucking contract. He told the subcommittee he spends $1.5 million worth of ammunition -- every month.

Officials in Pakistan believe that Ruhullah not only funds the local warlords and thieves and road bandits in Afghanistan, but sends a portion of his money to the Quetta Shura – the Taliban leadership council, based in southwest Pakistan.

… In the end, the subcommittee and the American trucking executives don't only worry that American money is going to fund the Taliban. They are also worried that the contracting system is perpetuating Afghanistan's security problem; the payments to local contractors, they say, encourages instability along the roads and props up the kinds of warlords and local thugs who Afghans came to hate during the civil war of the early 1990s. And they say if Americans are seen to be supporting those people, then the Afghan public will refuse to support the Americans or the government -- whose police and army have been bypassed by the U.S. contracting system.

"If one of the foundational aspects of counter-insurgency is to have a government in Afghanistan that people from that country can trust and put their faith in and believe that it's not corrupt, it doesn't seem to make much sense to me to put that kind of money at risk of feeding corruption and building up powers that are not the government," Tierney says. "When people see police and army people getting paid off and gangsters running around making huge amounts of money while a truck driver might make $200 a month -- but the guy that's armed might make $20 million in a year -- that does not lend itself to people having a great deal of confidence that the system is going to work for them."

Another four years and the Afghan war can finally retire. (I think military retirement requirement is 20 years).

that the Vietnam re-unification election had taken place as agreed to in Geneva. After Obama, I'm not impressed with speeches.

is just another Vietnam but with body armor.

Yes, a springboard for more wars, and that we support insane things, and that folks want to mine the massive mineral wealth that is under the soil there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Afghanistan#Petroleum_and_natura...