LEFT BEHIND: US Scrapping $7B in Military Equipment in Afghanistan to Protect War Profiteers

[unhappycamper]

http://www.secretsofthefed.com/left-behind-us-scrapping-7b-in-military-equipment-in-afghanistan-to-protect-war-profiteers/



LEFT BEHIND: US Scrapping $7B in Military Equipment in Afghanistan to Protect War Profiteers

Facing a tight withdrawal deadline and tough terrain, the U.S. military has destroyed more than 170 million pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment as it rushes to wind down its role in the Afghanistan war by the end of 2014.

The massive disposal effort, which U.S. military officials call unprecedented, has unfolded largely out of sight amid an ongoing debate inside the Pentagon about what to do with the heaps of equipment that won’t be returning home. Military planners have determined that they will not ship back more than $7 billion worth of equipment — about 20 percent of what the U.S. military has in Afghanistan — because it is no longer needed or would be too costly to ship back home.

That has left the Pentagon in a quandary about what to do with the items. Bequeathing a large share to the Afghan government would be challenging because of complicated rules governing equipment donations to other countries, and there is concern that Afghanistan’s fledgling forces would be unable to maintain it. Some gear may be sold or donated to allied nations, but few are likely to be able to retrieve it from the war zone.

Therefore, much of it will continue to be shredded, cut and crushed to be sold for pennies per pound on the Afghan scrap market — a process that reflects a presumptive end to an era of protracted ground wars. The destruction of tons of equipment is all but certain to raise sharp questions in Afghanistan and the United States about whether the Pentagon’s approach is fiscally responsible and whether it should find ways to leave a greater share to the Afghans.

[Sherman A1]

1. I would like to think

it should all be removed, beyond what is being donated to the Afghan forces. That of course is wishful thinking on my part.

I did find the words Pentagon and fiscally responsible in the same sentence to be a cause for