The latest and perhaps most unusual argument against sequestration coming out of the US Army’s leadership is that the price of withdrawing some of its troops from Afghanistan in 2014 continues to rise, and that they won’t be able to afford to follow through without the additional funds.
Leadership officials, quoted in the Army Times, complain that the cash for “extra transportation” just isn’t there, and that costs are going to keep going up, citing the additional near-term costs of the drawdown from Iraq as an example.
On the other hand, the suggestion appears farcical in that the cost of keeping occupation forces in Afghanistan is in and of itself dramatically higher than the cost of not occupying Afghanistan, so not withdrawing from Afghanistan cannot in any way be spun as a “cost-saving” scheme.
That said, the cost of withdrawing for Afghanistan does continue to rise, primarily because of the enormous amount of extra equipment the US sent to the nation during the surge. A massive number of shipping containers, never opened or properly documented, are just sitting on various bases in Afghanistan, and officials have even talked about having to send a “surge” of logistics people just to open the crates and see what’s in them. Canada faced a similar problem, discovering that their ‘unopened’ crates had been opened by someone, looted, and filled back up with sand.
Oh dear, maybe the military will have to cut more of its pork barrel projects to finance the withdrawal.
Our suckered into being the deadly force protectors of a nation just as corrupt as us, its almost as if by intelligent design — that’s what I always say.
What "US Army’s leadership" is Ditz talking about. Hard to believe that any leader in our military would suggest something so stupid that any fifth grader would know is a lie.
Say, does anyone know the net worth of this Ditz?
What a novel argument. It is too expensive to withdraw! Gawd!
One more example of why one of the top oxymorons is Military Intelligence!