​被題目繞暈了嗎？

是不是想大喊一聲：禁止“套娃”？

事實是，這個令人費解又心驚的邏輯在大洋彼岸成立了。

據彭博社和《華爾街日報》12月27日報道，從2009年到2017年在阿富汗死亡或受傷的143名美軍士兵和員工的家屬以原告身份於週五在華盛頓地方法院對多家美國政府承包商發起訴訟，指控多家美國承包商與國際承包商在參與阿富汗重建專案時向塔利班“交保護費”。

而這些錢，又被塔利班用於攻擊美國士兵和僱員。

More than 100 Gold Star families have sued several major defense contractors in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly paying protection money to the Taliban while building projects in Afghanistan – thereby funding the Taliban's insurgency efforts that killed or wounded thousands of Americans in the Asian country.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the families of 143 U.S. troops and contract workers killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017.

這份起訴基於保密證人、公司內部檔案、解密政府情報和國會證詞透露的資訊，指控稱被告公司為了保護自己的商業利益，通過當地分包商向塔利班支付保護費。

多家參與阿富汗重建專案的公司多次通過當地分包單位付錢給塔利班，這些分包單位有的直接轉賬給塔利班，有的甚至僱傭塔利班成員擔任警衛。

According to the lawsuit, the Taliban in 2005 began systematically approaching international businesses operating in Afghanistan, and extorted protection money.

"Defendants paid the Taliban to leave them alone. The payments saved Defendants money: It was cheaper to buy off the Taliban than it would have been to invest in the security necessary to mitigate the terrorists’ threats," the suit alleged.

訴訟涉及多家承包美國政府專案的承包商，其中就包括美國國際開發署(USAID)最大的兩家承包商——DAI Global LLC和路易斯•伯傑集團(Louis Berger Group)，它們在2007年至2009年期間為阿富汗發展的工程提供了大約10億美元的援助，當時美國國際開發署在阿富汗的一半合同都由這兩家公司承包。

The companies in the suit include several top contractors working for the U.S. government. Two of the companies collected some $1 billion in funds in just two years from the United States Agency for International Development, according to the suit.

自2001年起，美國已在阿富汗與塔利班進行了長達18年的戰爭，至今仍未結束。

在這些公司向塔利班支付高額“保護費”的同時，根據美國國會的調查記錄顯示，有超過10萬名美國士兵在阿富汗國境內與塔利班作戰。

It alleges that as much as 40% of the funds for major projects was paid to insurgents while 100,000 American troops were fighting the Taliban, congressional investigations have documented.

近十多年來，美國政府一直在公開宣告中反對向塔利班組織付款的做法。美國國會通過的反恐法明確規定，為塔利班提供物質支援是違法的。

For more than a decade, US officials have opposed the practice of making payments to warlords and other corrupt groups. The U.S. has warned defense contractors that protection payments are against the law.

但這條禁令似乎收效不佳。

However, in 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers that the "protection money" was "one of the major sources of funding for the Taliban."

截至目前，被告的幾家公司均未對指控做出迴應。