Another $900 million wasted in Afghanistan

The US Army Inspector General recently “found” a warehouse in Afghanistan where 900 million dollars worth of spare parts for the Army’s Stryker vehicles were “stored” (read that: forgotten).

Apparently the Stryker was introduced in the early days of the Afghan War and was modified a number of times to adapt for the needs in the field. Each time the vehicle was modified, General Dynamics rushed a new supply of spare parts so the vehicles could be serviced and repaired. Many of these parts subsequently became useless when the next modification was made. The result –one hell of a lot of useless parts and one huge amount of wasted tax dollars. 

As part of the resently passed Defense Spending Bill, Congress has required the Army to report on what it intends to do with these parts. Since shipping them back would be costly and would not make much sense (the parts couldn’t be used here either), they will probably be destroyed or just turned over the the Afghan Army. 

The only people that seemed to benefit by this debacle are the people working at General Dynmics (and, of course, the Congressmen and Senators who were lobbied to push for the Army’s purchase of these parts). 

I have a suggestion for disposing o these parts. Many of the early versions of the Styker were “left” in Iraq when US troops pulled out (again, it was not cost effective to ship them home). Let’s sell these parts to Iraq. With all their troubles with the Al-Qaeda uprising these Stryker vehicles must be in need of repair these days. 

It might also be a good idea to take a look at how much the Army spends on spare parts for equipment still in development….

 Today's Reflection:

A lie told often enough becomes truth. -Vladimir Lenin

Live Long and Prosper....