Friday, November 08, 2013

US trashes, sells its unwanted gear in Afghanistan -- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The withdrawing U.S. military is destroying most of the equipment it is leaving behind in Afghanistan after 13 years of war, selling the scrap for millions of dollars to those willing to buy it. -- The policy stands in stark contrast to the Americans' withdrawal from Iraq, when they donated or sold still-usable items worth about $100 million. -- Afghans are angry at the policy, arguing that even furniture and appliances that could improve their lives is being turned into useless junk. -- "They use everything while they are here, and then they give it to us after breaking it," said Mohammed Qasim, a junk dealer in the volatile southern province of Kandahar. He gestured toward the large yellow frame of a gutted generator, saying it would have been more useful in somebody's home, given the lack of electricity in the area. -- In the last year, the U.S. has turned equipment and vehicles into 387 million pounds (176 million kilograms) of scrap that it sold to Afghans for $46.5 million, according to Mimi Schirmacher, a spokeswoman for the military's Defense Logistics Agency in Virginia. -- The scrapped material was too worn out to repair or not worth the expense of carrying it back to the U.S., officials said. -- Spokesmen for President Hamid Karzai said the government has "repeatedly" asked U.S. officials to neither destroy nor remove its military equipment from Afghanistan when its combat troops leave. -- "We oppose the destruction of any of the equipment and hardware that can be of use by the Afghan security forces," deputy presidential spokesman Fayeq Wahedi told The Associated Press in an email. -- Crichton said the Iraqis were better prepared to receive and maintain the equipment. -- The lessons learned from Iraq included how to save money by dismantling, relocating and disposing of equipment it didn't want to ship home, she said, as well as earning money by selling it as scrap to the locals. The U.S. deployed an estimated $33 billion in equipment to Afghanistan. - More, KATHY GANNON, Associated Press

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