'Afghanistan is the New Iraq', the CWC is the new Truman Committee, and O.K., ProPublica is the new L.A. Times.

As the Commission on Wartime Contracting began its two-year investigation into the various ways contracting might, just maybe, be handled better than it was in the Iraq war's early days, ProPublica's T. Christian Miller writes that Afghanistan clearly looms large as members look to the future.

Other stories have pointed out the increase in contracts in Afghanistan as business draws down in Iraq, but Miller puts it in stark terms: "Afghanistan is the new Iraq – the U.S. is dumping money into the country as the Obama administration prepares to up troops by 30,000 by this spring."

To hear Miller tell it, there were basic questions of oversight and accountability for how the money's being spent in Afghanistan -- the kind of thing you'd think we'd know to watch out for by now. "While the Inspector General for Iraq presented his hundreds of pages of learned lessons," Miller writes, "his newly appointed counterpart for Afghanistan, the retired Marine Corp Major General Arnold Fields, wasn’t even invited to the hearing."

It's an important reminder that this commission isn't just about clearing up the recent history. Whatever lessons they can come up with, someone needs to actually apply them to the decisions being made right now, and in the near future.

As a side note, Miller is one of just a few reporters who've spent years covering the money and the people caught up in Iraq war contracting. When I met a contractor injured in the war, half the time I'd hear about how Miller had just been in town weeks before, or that I should be watching the L.A. Times for his latest. The guy wrote the book on wasteful contracting in Iraq, and as I met with injured contractors across the country, I had to fight back the feeling I was just chasing his shadow.

The money, policy and oversight questions run so deep, though, I do feel like there's plenty of room for the high-level government coverage as well as the more personal stories of the people who've been hurt by this troubled system. Reporters like Miller and Steve Fainaru of the Washington Post have done amazing work uncovering how the system works. I hope what I'm doing here can draw out the strange ways people get caught up in it.