The Pentagon’s recent request for Congressional permission to shift $10 billion in funds in the face of a growing Afghan budget crisis is not the sudden problem it was initially presented as, but rather a spillover from a November 2011 incident.
In late November of 2011, US warplanes attacked a Pakistani military base across the border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers and leading Pakistan to close its borders to US supply traffic into occupied Afghanistan.
With the border closed, the Pentagon was forced to use an overland route through the former Soviet Union for almost everything, costing dramatically more and causing budget problems that are still causing them fits. A backlog of supplies inside Pakistan still hasn’t fully been worked through to this day, and that is also adding to costs.
The border remained closed far longer than the US expected, primarily because Pakistan conditioned reopening it on getting an apology for the attack. The Obama Administration refused to do so for many months, only finally agreeing to do so in July of 2012.