Asia-Pacific
US said leaving Iraq millions of dollars of gear
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-07 14:00
WASHINGTON: US commanders are donating up to $30 million worth of passenger vehicles, generators and gear to Iraq from each facility they leave, as they scale back deployments, up from a previous cap of $2 million, the Washington Post reported in its Monday editions.
The new limit applies at scores of posts that the US military is expected to quit as it leaves about 280 facilities for six large bases and a few small ones by the end of next summer, the Post said.
Some of the items that may now be left behind under new authorities granted by the Pentagon, including passenger vehicles and generators, are among those commanders need most urgently to support a US troop buildup in Afghanistan, the Post said, citing Pentagon memos.
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The old $2 million cap on such donations was established when the guidelines were first set in 2005, the Post said.
It said officials in the US Central Command, which oversees both wars, have balked at some proposed handovers, and rejected an approach that would have granted base commanders even greater leeway.
Brigadier General Peter?Bayer Jr, chief of staff for the ground forces command in Iraq, said though the Army wanted to make equipment available to units in Afghanistan, it was often more cost-effective to donate vehicles and other goods to the cash-strapped Iraqi government than to pack and ship it.
"In many cases, we'll spend more between labor and transportation than the equipment is worth," the Post quoted Bayer as saying.
Under the surge that President Barack Obama outlined last week, commanders in Afghanistan soon will receive 30,000 additional US troops.
Senior military officials have said that getting new equipment into Afghanistan presents a major logistical challenge.
A Pentagon spokeswoman had no immediate response to questions about the reported new US policy.
