Posted on 02/07/2013 11:13:49 AM PST by Pan_Yan
Almost half of Britain’s military equipment sent to Afghanistan will never return – and could end up in the hands of the Taliban.
About 40% of gear being used in Helmand Province will be scrapped or sold when UK forces finally leave by the end of next year.
The Government estimates about 11,000 containers of equipment are in Afghanistan, including 3,000 vehicles.
Of these, defence chiefs plan to bring back about 6,500 loads – costing tens of millions of pounds. That means leaving 4,500 containers.
These will not include weapons – but besides everyday items will be non-lethal military hardware that could be of use to insurgents.
(Excerpt) Read more at mirror.co.uk ...
Anyone have a copy of the Willy and Joe cartoon “You blokes sure leave a messy battlefield”?
You speak of that era as if it were this idealistic war the Brits fought out of sheer altruism. In reality, they were fighting to avoid being overrun. If the situations were reversed, would they have come to our rescue bright and early? Ultimately, it was their war. How often have the Brits come to our aid? Korea. Vietnam. Iraq I. Afghanistan. Iraq II. In total, they lost less than 2000 dead. We lost 300K killed fighting in Europe in WWII alone. We also lost 100K fighting in WWI. The way British logic goes, maybe we should have intervened in the Crimean and Napoleonic Wars. Then we can pretend the Revolutionary War never happened, and these United States remained a Crown Colony subject to periodic military levies.
The sea bed works well, too.
No sea near Afghanistan, have to transport through Pakistan
better to make a huge bonfire of all stuff that can benefit the enemy, and give food and kitchen eqipment to locals
There was a huge domestic surplus market after the war. It must have been all the materiel that never got sent into theater.
Nearly all the Navy’s PT boats were burned in place in the South Pacific. I saw a movie as a kid about smugglers using PT craft for gunrunning. Their extreme speed made them ideal for the role. I remember pics in magazines of combat aircraft being melted down for the aluminum.
What’s happening with equipment in Afghanistan is outrageous, it should all be destroyed in place or else Karzai & his band of crooks will sell/give it to the Taliban.
“Brits” never were too bright.
This is funny as you cannot buy a surplus humvee here in the US. They cut them in half so they are only good spare parts.
Man I worked with said once the ships were loaded and at sea they didn’t turn back because some supplies on the ships was still needed.
They junked whatever wasn’t needed when the ship arrived at it’s destination.
As a side note my uncle had a PT boat.
He took out the gas engine and replaced it with a diesel.
He ended up selling the PT boat sometime in the 70’s and bought another boat.
Years later after my uncle had died, someone saw the engine sitting in the middle of the property and bought it.
They were rebuilding a PT boat to it’s original condition.
Turns out it was the PT boat my uncle had that they were rebuilding.
Just wait until we leave. If Barry gets his way, it will resemble the fall of Saigon....I don’tthink he’d be too bent out of shape if alot of equipment went to Taliban hands.
Gasoline is even cheaper, put it all in a pile douse it with gasoline and set fire to it. Leave them nothing.
This is a pittance compared to what we will leave behind if we ever leave. Don’t even leave them a toothpick.
This was mentioned in the movie LORD OF WAR about how it was easier for a country to leave it’s equipment behind and order new stuff back home than to take it home with them.
I remember reading how after WWII the Navy dumped tons of perfectly good equipment into the Pacific Ocean rather than take it back to the US. Most of it was brand new. I’m talking planes, tanks, jeeps, bulldozers, road graders, ect.
A local to me guy in the National Guard was brought up on Federal charges because he had the audacity to send items back home that were listed as “expendable” on their inventory instead of leave them behind. Once the items (flashlights) got back home, he gave them out to his buddies and even some to the local Sheriff’s office. I guess the Feds didn’t like that and had him charged with theft of Govt property.
UM, the US is leaving far more than that. There are untold amounts of equipment that is there that no one knows who ordered it or what to with it.
We do the same thing. There’s lots of equipment that’s not worth the cost to bring back. Most of it has been worked hard and isn’t in good shape, and it’s all bulky and heavy, and the accounting department has already depreciated it out on the ledgers so they’d be looking for an excuse to get rid of it at home anyway. It’s never anything dangerous, jeeps, half shells, cots, general crap. Weapons and ammo come home, general supplies frequently stay.
” I’m talking planes, tanks, jeeps, bulldozers, road graders, ect.”
And this stuff wasn’t useful to the local populations that had their entire infrastructure destroyed? No this was all about ensuring that the American companies profit after the fact twice, once by selling the equipment to the USG and then by selling another set to the countries that needed to be rebuilt.
I knew a guy who was involved in dynamiting “a mountain” of beer in the Philippines at the end of WWII. He said it was enough beer to put every brewer in the Philippines out of business for ten years.
you’d think an enterprising business man that owes or wants to own a scrap metal business would make a deal with the Brits to purchase everything they don’t dont for pennies on the dollar.
‘If the situations were reversed, would they have come to our rescue bright and early?’
Yes. We went into two world wars to defend Belgium and Poland.
‘How often have the Brits come to our aid? Korea. Iraq I. Afghanistan. Iraq II.’
4-2 to us then. BTW, I assume you know WHY we didnt get involved in Vietnam (officially).
‘In total, they lost less than 2000 dead. We lost 300K killed fighting in Europe in WWII alone.’
And your point is?.
‘The way British logic goes, maybe we should have intervened in the Crimean and Napoleonic Wars. ‘
We dont mind you entered both world wars later than us. What we DO object to is the ‘we saved your ass/you’d be speaking German if not for us’ crap. Knock that s*it off and we wont crack remarks about ‘turning up late’.
We did save your asses in two World Wars and you wold be speaking German if it weren’t for us. After you, like a bunch of sheep, turned in your weapons the NRA members shipped tens of thousands of firearms to Britain, for free.
If it weren’t for the American Merchant Marine England would have fallen. If it weren’t for Lend-Lease you’d have been throwing rocks at Germans.
If it weren’t for Neville Chamberlain WWII could have been averted. If you’d defended the Czechs instead of handing them to Hitler on a silver platter you wouldn’t have had to fight in Poland or Belgium.
Nice work drawing all those nice, straight lines in the Middle East, too. The planet is still paying for that idiocy.
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