The Obama White House is resigned to losing up to $36 billion worth of military hardware when it pulls out of Afghanistan.
A total of 750,000 pieces of major military hardware are in the country and the cost of getting it out is seen as insurmountable.
That means either leaving it, or destroying it so it doesn’t fall into the hands of potential enemies, reports Face The Facts USA, a project of the George Washington University,
“Transport is hard in landlocked, mountainous Afghanistan. But leaving it behind intact means the wrong hands could get hold of it,” says the website. “So is it best to torch $36 billion in U.S. assets?”
The cost of transferring the equipment to another U.S. agency or bringing it out of Afghanistan, is seen as a prohibitive $5.7 billion, which means it will probably be lost to U.S. taxpayers for ever.
The equipment includes trucks, aircraft, and armored vehicles — most of which are controlled by the Army. A report by the Government Accountability Office said there are 50,000 vehicles and 90,000 shipping containers of materiel in Afghanistan.
Most U.S. troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of next year.