US Massing Thousands of Vehicles in Kuwait for ISIS War

US Detours Afghan 'Scrap' to New War

by | Dec 26, 2014

For years, the US was wondering what it was going to do with many thousands of war vehicles it shipped to Afghanistan when the drawdown left so many of them in surplus. At times they talked about giving them away, or shredding them.

Instead, 3,100 such vehicles have been sent to Kuwait, where the US is massing them for use in the ever-escalating war against ISIS. Officials simply found another war for them.

The bulk of the vehicles are MRAPs, used by ground troops to resist IEDs in travel, and that points to the buildup being done with an eye on an eventual US ground war in Iraq and Syria.

US Transport Command says that the Army has “room” to hold all the gear in Kuwait, and is simply storing it there until they figure out what they have a need for. History suggests they’ll invent needs for it, if nothing immediately springs up.

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.

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