A solid 12 years of throwing arms and equipment, both needed and unneeded, at the occupation of Afghanistan has made removing excess gear a herculean task, not to mention an expensive one. After months of doing so, the US has temporary stopped the shipments because of a dispute over customs which could spiral the costs even more out of control.
The Afghan government has been complaining that the US isn’t submitting proper paperwork with its shipments about why they should be “exempt” from customs fees, and has been fining them $1,000 per shipping container, setting up $70 million of fines.
The Afghan Finance Ministry wanted specific details about what was in each container, saying they believe some of the military’s contractors were using the military shipments to smuggle other things out without paying for customs.
Ministry officials say if anything, they’re cutting the US a break with the $70 million in fines, as they looked the other way during smuggling of equipment into the country and could’ve faced hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.
70 million?
that's a drop in the bucket for the pentagon.
seems more like an excuse not to leave afghaniquagmire