This is a graphic from p. 66 of the new quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR). It shows the 12 largest donors to the giant sucking sound known as the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) for the last nine months of 2012, which are also defined in the SIGAR report as "SY 1391."

That's odd. What's "SY 1391"? In Iran and Afghanistan, it is the calendar year beginning from 622 when Mohammed is said to have made the "hijra," or migration, from (peaceful-ish) Mecca to (warlike) Medina. Medina, of course, is where Islam as it threatens us today really got started. Nice marker for a US government accounting of the waste of "infidel" taxpayer millions. I suppose we should be grateful SIGAR only rarely goes by "SY 1391," and mainly to explain why, as an accounting period, it lasted only nine months. (Instead of continuing to follow the traditional Iranian-Afghan "solar year"  from March to March, the Afghan government has decided to run its solar year from now on from December to December. SY 1391 began as usual in March 2012 and ended in December 2012.)

So, the 12 largest donors for the past nine months for such waste, fraud and abuses as multi-zillion dollar police stations that now serve as chicken coops and roads that lead nowhere are: Uncle Sucker, Japan, UK, Germany, Australia, Norway, EC/EU, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Finland.

Is it not strange that such a list includes a good chunk of what might be loosely thought of as post-Christendom, or, better, the non-Muslim world? There is not a "Saudi Arabia" or "Qatar" in sight among world moneybags here. Why? Is it because they recognize a waste of money when they see one? Or is it because shoring up the Government of Afghanistan doesn't dovetail with umma policy?

Meawhile, Qatar, for example, has been funneling literally billions to Libya and Syria, to take two other global hotspots of united concern. It is also historically no skinflint when it comes providing funding streams to Afghanistan.

Of course, that was all in support of the Other Side -- part of the Saudi, Qatari and UAE joint-effort to advance the Taliban et al, as Wikileaks has made patently clear

Maybe that's why they don't make this "top richest" list.