US Military Giving ALL Of This Away......

g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
edited September 2011 in A Moving Train
U.S. To Hand Over Iraq Bases, Equipment Worth Billions

Another good reason NOT to get into all these wars and for what exactly to hand out giveaways.....then when the next war starts up we buy anew for more millions and billions and possibly trillions by then. :shock:

WASHINGTON -- With just over three months until the last U.S. troops are currently due to leave Iraq, the Department of Defense is engaged in a mad dash to give away things that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to buy and build.

The giveaways include enormous, elaborate military bases and vast amounts of military equipment that will be turned over to the Iraqis, mostly just to save the expense of bringing it home.

"It's all sunk costs," said retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who oversaw the training of Iraqi soldiers from 2003 to 2004. "It's money that we spent and we're not going to recoup."

There were 505 U.S. military bases and outposts in Iraq at the height of operations, said Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq. Only 39 are still in U.S. hands -- but that includes each of the largest bases, meaning the most significant handovers are yet to come.

Those bases didn't come cheap. Construction costs exceeded $2.4 billion, according to an analysis of Pentagon annual reports by the Congressional Research Service. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers alone was responsible for $1.9 billion in base construction contracts between 2004 and 2010, a spokesman told HuffPost.

Rather than strip those bases clean and ship everything home, Defense Department officials tell The Huffington Post that over 2.4 million pieces of equipment worth a total of at least $250 million -- everything from tanks and trucks to office furniture and latrines -- have been given away to the Iraqi government in the past year, with the pace of transfers expected to increase dramatically in the coming months.

Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti

*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)


Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • this is as relevant today as it was in the early 90s... sad, eh?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqBOMBSDQsI
    Everything not forbidden is compulsory and eveything not compulsory is forbidden. You are free... free to do what the government says you can do.
  • Jason PJason P Posts: 19,156
    The only way to avoid those give-away is to never show up in the first place or never leave. As it is, from a cost / logistics point of view, those decisions are no-brainers.
    Be Excellent To Each Other
    Party On, Dudes!
  • Jason P wrote:
    The only way to avoid those give-away is to never show up in the first place or never leave. As it is, from a cost / logistics point of view, those decisions are no-brainers.

    at least we used to SELL our weapons to corrupt countries with ruthless dictators... now we just GIVE it away without making a buck.
    Everything not forbidden is compulsory and eveything not compulsory is forbidden. You are free... free to do what the government says you can do.
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    We shouldn't have paid to build them in the first place. That would have saved us from this fire sale.
    ...
    And maybe... we can just call the bases, 'Shopping Centers' and call the outposts and checkpoints, 'Girl's Schools' and send the Iraqi people a 'You're Welcome' card from Hallmark.
    Then, write the loss off on our Schedule A form.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
Sign In or Register to comment.