U.S. military trashes unwanted gear

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- 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 contrast to the Americans' withdrawal from Iraq, when they donated or sold still-usable items worth about $100 million.

The equipment is being trashed, U.S. officials say, because of fears anything left behind in Afghanistan could fall into the hands of insurgents and used to make bombs. Leaving it behind also saves the U.S. billions of dollars in transportation costs.

Afghans are angry at the policy, arguing that furniture and appliances that could improve their lives is being turned into useless junk.

"They use everything while they are here, and then they give it to us after breaking it," said Mohammed Qasim, a junk dealer in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.

He gestured toward the large yellow frame of a gutted generator, saying it would have been more useful in somebody's home, given the lack of electricity in the area.

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.

In the last year, the U.S. has turned equipment and vehicles into 387 million pounds of scrap it sold to Afghans for $46.5 million, according to Mimi Schirmacher, a spokeswoman for the military's Defense Logistics Agency in Virginia.

The scrapped material was too worn to repair or not worth the expense of carrying it back to the U.S., officials said.

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.

"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 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 said 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even the most innocuous piece of equipment, like a treadmill, a stationary bike or household appliances, have timers or copper wiring that can be used to make roadside bombs, she said.

"Removing those timers or other potentially dangerous internal components renders the property inoperable, and so it is scrapped," she said, adding that her agency sells the scrap to three Afghan firms. The U.S. military decides what gets turned into scrap, Schirmacher said.

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.

"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

"These are things we can use at home with our families or in our business. But instead they turn everything to junk and then they give it to us," he added.

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.

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.

"The Russians were better. At least they didn't leave us junk. They didn't destroy everything and then leave," he said, removing his turban and scratching his bald head.

Shah said he had fought as a mujahedeen, or holy warrior, against the Soviets in a war that was heavily funded by the U.S. and other Western countries.

"But now we're in even worse shape," he added.