@DB,
Your knowledge of UAVs is impressive, but not entirely accurate.
Most of the UAVs, but not all, operated out of Kabul. Some units had their own, generally the smaller ones.
Unless it was a TIC, getting UAV support was a paperwork, chain of command nightmare. “Bureaucratic” fog as you put it. To my knowledge, none of authorization when out of country. Mainly ISAF HQ in Kabul, with a few regional commands providing authorization.
If it was not direct CAS, it was a pair of B1Bs or B-52 dropping LGBs, that were always burning tracks in the sky.
Money, USAID would do a work up estimate for a project, say a bridge. Then, they would try to bring US methodologies to a third world country, namely the contract bidding process. It was sad when everyone to include the Afghans thought that was dumb. Contract gets awarded, $2.5million to build the bridge. 6 months later, after all the bribes, skimming, etc. there might be $100,000 left to build the bridge.