U.S. Trashes Afghanistan Gear, Angering Afghans Who Could Use Equipment louis vuitton outlet KANDAHAR, 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.
louis vuitton outlet online The twisted mounds of metal, steel and industrial rubber scattered over a vast field had once been armored vehicles, trucks and huge blast walls that protected troops from suicide bombers. Giant black treads were pulled from tanks. Even air conditioners, exercise machines and office equipment were crushed and stuffed into multicolored shipping containers piled on top of each other in the junkyard.
Not everything in Afghanistan was destroyed. Coalition forces have handed over $71 million in equipment intact to the Afghans, said Col. Jane Crichton, a public affairs officer for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. She said $64 million of that came from the U.S.
louis vuitton outlet store online "We work closely with the Afghan National Security Forces to determine what equipment they need, if it is in good condition, and ensure they are capable of maintaining it," Crichton said in an email.
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.
Between September 2012 and the end of 2014, when most U.S. troops will have left, the Americans will move an estimated 50,000 vehicles — tens of thousands of them hardened to make them resistant to mines.
uggs on sale They will also ship an estimated 100,000 metal containers — each about 20 feet long. Placed end-to-end, the containers would stretch nearly 400 miles (600 kilometers).
The military faced a similar logistics dilemma when it pulled out of Iraq in 2011, but it left most of the equipment with the government, including water tanks, generators, furniture and armored vehicles. Nearly $100 million in equipment was donated or sold to the Iraqis as of 2010, military officials said at the time.
Crichton said the Iraqis were better prepared to receive and maintain the equipment.
"Iraq had a higher number of military and police personnel, and they had a more developed infrastructure at the end of operations to support the equipment," she said.
ugg sale 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.
In southern Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban where a stubborn insurgency still flourishes, the policy is having unintended consequences.
At a junkyard less than a mile (kilometer) from the sprawling Kandahar Air Base where tens of thousands of NATO and U.S. soldiers were stationed at the war's peak, ethnic Pashtuns grumble at getting scrap instead of working equipment.
ugg boots on sale Schirmacher, the Defense Logistics Agency spokeswoman, said a big reason for trashing the equipment before selling it to the Afghans is to remove its potential to be used for bombs.
Inside the junkyard office, a half-dozen men sipping green tea scoffed at the concern, saying insurgents can get cheap timers and other bomb-making material in any village marketplace.
uggs cyber Monday "These timers can be bought over there," dealer Mir Ahmed said, pointing out a grimy window to a row of electrical shops.
"They can buy them cheap. They can buy a bunch of cheap watches with timers for nothing, but even if they have lots of money and are using this equipment to make bombs, what about the washing machines? What can they do with those?" he said
Ahmed, who said he has paid as much as $4,000 for a large container of junk, said the contents can be kind of a lottery.
christian louboutin outlet Daoud Shah, a rotund man with a long gray beard, compared the impending pullout of U.S. and NATO combat troops to the 1989 Soviet military withdrawal after a 10-year occupation.
North Korea Accuses South Korean President Of 'Moral Vulgarity'
christian louboutin cyber Monday North Korea accused South Korean President Park Geun-Hye of "moral vulgarity" Wednesday after she suggested she was ready to hold a summit with its leader Kim Jong-Un at any time.
The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea accused Park of talking about a summit with Kim while making provocative remarks against Pyongyang.
"Park's remark about 'summit talks' does not deserve even a passing note and is just a last resort to tide over the political crisis inside and outside," the state body said in a statement.
The statement, carried by the North's official news agency, was a response to Park's comments in an interview published last week by the French daily Le Figaro.
Park said she was willing to hold a summit with Kim at any time if it were necessary to improve cross-border relations and promote peace on the Korean peninsula.
christian louboutin outlet online But her senior press secretary, Lee Jung-Hyun, cautioned against reading too much into her comment, calling it "an answer in principle".
Park visited Paris on Saturday, the first leg of her three-nation trip that would also bring her to Britain and Belgium.
"(North Korea) will never pardon those who dare insult and make a fool of the dignity of its supreme leadership under the signboard of 'summit talks'," it said.
christian louboutin sale The committee urged Park to halt "provocative words and acts", and to have "good manners" if she sincerely hopes to meet with Kim.
Military tensions, which soared following the North's nuclear test in February, appeared to enter a rapprochement stage that saw the two rivals agree to reopen their joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.
The mood quickly soured again when Pyongyang cancelled a scheduled reunion last month for family members separated by the Korean War.
South Korean army chief Kwon Oh-Sung told a forum Wednesday that Kim could make a provocative move in an attempt to take a strategic initiative in stagnant relations with Seoul.
louis vuitton outlet store "There is a very high chance of provocation by North Korea's Kim Jong-Un regime to turn the tide and take the lead in inter-Korean relations," he said.