With the surge over and US troop levels drawing down, a large number of forward operating bases and remote outposts are no longer going to be in use, and the US is feverishly dismantling every last trace of them, even emptying the dirt-filled barricades before removing the containers.
That’s not sitting well with Afghan officials, who say that a lot of the bases could either be used by Afghan forces or simply converted into schools or other things the Afghan government can’t afford to build.
Paktika Governor Mohibullah Samim has led to call for the US to simply turn over bases they no longer want instead of going to the trouble of demolishing them, and likewise has suggested that instead of shipping things they don’t want back home they should give them to the government.
US officials have rejected those calls, however, saying that Afghans would never know what to do with a lot of the leftovers, and that the Taliban is liable to take over any bases that aren’t demolished. Still, the cost and difficulty of destroying literally everything and shipping it back to the West could take years in and of itself, prolonging the occupation.
"…cost and difficulty of destroying literally everything and shipping it back to the West could take years…"
Just call in a couple of B-2s and their 500 lb-ers and Shazaam!! – destruction complete and no need to worry about shipping it back home – or the Tallyban using it…if they can find it. You can't be serious that now they're finally concerned about just leaving equipment behind.
More wasted biillion$
the MIC doesn't consider it wasted…all those mil contractors got their bonuses for maximizing taxpayer largess into profits for themselves.
Afghan society is bird of a feather with Empire USA, as the upper half has all the wealth, both the Russian and U.S. invasions were needed to enslave the impoverished lower half and life kicks on down.
“I saw a young cowpolk all wrapped up in white linen,
all wrapped up in white linen, white linen… I cried.”
i love how the us is admitting to the failure of training the afghan army here. when they saw the Taliban would take over any base they left behind, what they are implying is that if they gave the base to the afghan army, they would never be able to defend it from the taliban. so the goal of building an independent army of Afghanistan capable of operating interdependently has been a total failure, one admitted to by the us military apparently.
KBR (and the others) get paid for sticking stuff up and for tearing it down, heck of a job brownie.
The fact that they bald-faced tell you the Afghans "wouldn't know what to do"…. tells us just how much the value their Afghan "partners".
When France pulled out of NATO and had the US close all of their military bases in 1965/66, the US military did the same thing, destroy everything they couldn´t take with them. I suppose it was to keep the Communists from taking advantage of the infrastructures once they pulled out.
It´s the same mentality, the mentality of idiots-in-charge.
The US GHOULS should not leave any traces. Who wants to be reminded of a 10 + year Cluster *Buck by Uncle Sam and his murdering scoundrels ?