US, millions of dollars for the wrong currencies: Pentagon waste in Afghanistan

Photo of the US Department of Defense

In ten years, the US Department of Defense spent US $ 28 million on uniforms for Afghan armed forces. The camouflage suits supplied to the army of Kabul have in fact a forest green fantasy for forest camouflage, in a 98 percent desert country.

To denounce him, John Sopko, inspector general for the reconstruction of Afghanistan (Sigar). Washington’s fault was that it failed to carefully evaluate the choice of former Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

According to the survey, Wardak himself would have chosen the uniforms by surfing the web. “It was a stupid decision – said Sopko in an interview with USA Today– We wasted 28 million dollars, taking them from the pockets of the tax payers, in the name of a fashion, just because the Defense Minister liked it. Would we have spent them even if they chose pink? “. The fantasy chosen was created by the HyperStealth Biotechnology Corporation, a Canadian company that created it for the armies of Jordan, Chile and the United Arab Emirates.

The Pentagon has not denied the statements of the inspector Sopko and stated that as soon as possible a more suitable alternative will be considered.

It is since 2007, six years after the American invasion, that the Afghan army is completely dependent on US funds. Not only uniforms, but also wages and recruitment. In the last three years, a billion have been spent on training military forces. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has promised that “every effort will be made to correct the shooting”, and that he intends to develop a new strategy within the next month.

26 June 2017