WASHINGTON: Faced with 2014 withdrawal deadline and a tough terrain, the United States military planners have determined not to ship back more than $7 billion worth of war equipment from Afghanistan.
Such equipment, representing about 20 percent of what the US military currently has in Afghanistan, has been deemed as no longer needed or costing too much to return home, an American newspaper reported. The Washington Post reported Thursday the US military has destroyed more than 170 million pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment in the unprecedented disposal effort, as it rushes to wind down its role in the Afghan war by the end of 2014.
Handing over 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, it said.
"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 newspaper report noted.
According to Maj. Gen. Kurt J. Stein, head of the 1st Sustainment Command, who is overseeing the drawdown in Afghanistan, this is the largest retrograde mission in history.
The Post reported that the effort also involves the disposal of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAPs) vehicles, the hulking beige personnel carriers that the Pentagon raced to build starting in 2007 to counter the threat of roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has determined that it will no longer have use for about 12,300 of its 25,500 MRAPs scattered at bases worldwide, officials said, according to the paper. In Afghanistan, the military has labeled about 2,000 of its roughly 11,000 MRAPs excess.
About 9,000 will be shipped to the United States and US military bases in Kuwait and elsewhere, but the majority of the unwanted vehicles which cost about $1 million each will probably be shredded, officials told the paper, because they are unlikely to find clients willing to come pick them up.
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