Into the smelter, basically:
The armored trucks, televisions, ice cream scoops and nearly everything else shipped here for America’s war against the Taliban are now part of the world’s biggest garage sale. Every week, as the U.S. troop drawdown accelerates, the United States is selling 12 million to 14 million pounds of its equipment on the Afghan market.Returning that gear to the United States from a landlocked country halfway around the world would be prohibitively expensive, according to U.S. officials. Instead, they’re leaving behind $7 billion worth of supplies, a would-be boon to the fragile Afghan economy.
But there’s one catch: The equipment is being destroyed before it’s offered to the Afghan people---to ensure that treadmills, air-conditioning units and other rudimentary appliances aren’t used to make roadside bombs [...]
That policy has produced more scrap metal than Afghanistan has ever seen. It has also led to frustration among Afghans, who feel as if they are being robbed of items such as flat-panel televisions and armored vehicles that they could use or sell---no small thing in a country where the average annual income hovers at just over $500.
And if the Afghans don't want a weekly ration of 12 million pounds of junk? Too bad for them! And to think that people in this country are mystified at why we're so hated around the world.
---Baron V
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