‘US military corruption scheme’: American army destroys tons of equipment in Afghanistan

The US destroys millions of dollars’ worth of equipment as it prepares to withdraw troops from Afghanistan saying bringing it back is too expensive. But economist Lew Rockwell tells RT it is because of a corruption scheme by the “US military junta”.

The US military has already destroyed more than 77,000 metric tons of military equipment. More of it to be destroyed as the US military is expected to engage in an unprecedented “massive disposal effort.”

The US says that leaving the equipment and vehicles to Afghan security forces, which after the US pullout in 2014 are supposed to keep peace on their own, is “challenging because of complicated rules governing equipment donations to other countries.” There is concern that Afghan troops will end up shooting themselves.

However, Lew Rockwell, chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, says the reasons have nothing to do with that.

“Government is sort of anti-commercial. They just want to spend; they want tax they want to spend; they want to destroy,” he says.

RT:Why not leave these vehicles in the hands of the Afghans as part of the handover instead of destroying them?

Lew Rockwell: They just don’t trust the Afghan government. Also you can think of what governments loved to do – they love to spend. They especially love to spend on important corporate interests. So, all the ex-generals end up as high-ranking officials of the arms manufacturers. Are the arms manufacturers and military equipment manufacturers upset to have this equipment destroyed? They love it. Right, they would just buy more. And they could not care less about the tax payers; they could not care less about all the poor people having their incomes, their property also wracked by this empire. What is going on in Afghanistan is just a tiny taste of what the US empire is doing all around the world. So, even though in one sense it is an outrage, it is just sort of a standard operating procedure for an empire like US.  

RT:The US says the transportation costs for the equipment are too high to ship them back home. But doesn't it look like another corruption scheme, by destroying the military vehicles so that no one could find out how many were bought?

LR: You can be a 100 per cent sure there is corruption involved. That’s government. The US government in Afghanistan – remember how many millions of dollars in cash were lost from the Iraq invasion - I am sure they have shipped vast numbers of hundred dollars bills to Afghanistan, this is how they operate. Of course there is tremendous corruption, but they did not dare give them to Afghan government, sell them. If this were normal, this were a company, there would be a sale and they would say ‘Who wants to buy them and what is the price you want to pay’. But that’s not government. Government is sort of anti-commercial. They just want to spend; they want tax they want to spend; they want to destroy. If you think, what is the job of the military besides killing people? That’s good to destroy property. So, they have no problem destroying property. But I agree, there is a corruption story here. I hope, if any American journalists who still brave enough to look into these kinds of things. And I must say frankly I don’t blame them if they are not brave enough, because it is dangerous to look into what the military junta is doing in these various countries. I hope somebody looks into it and I hope they can tell us what is actually behind it, But it is somehow makes sense, again, the government destroys property all the time, sort of their daily bread.

RT:The financial cost of war in Afghanistan amounts to almost 636 billion dollars. Taxpayers' money seems to be being thrown out the window. Is destroying the equipment really the thing to do?

LR: They are getting the equipment destroyed and then getting new equipment bought from them. That’s a great thing for them – they get more sales. I imagine they would like all their equipment destroyed, all over the world and the government buys all news stuff from them.  I am sure they are happy. I would also say we can’t believe the government about the cost of these things. They always lie, or maybe they are just incompetent, maybe that’s the nature of a non-profit course of operation like government that you can’t know the cost. I guarantee that’s far more than 636 billion dollars. It is over a trillion dollars in Afghanistan. It is horrendous what they have done and of course killed a lot of people, destroyed a lot of property, destroyed a society. They never did anything to the US. Again, Afghanistan never did anything to the US and yet they have been destroyed, their society destroyed. Who knows how many corpses are piled up? And [they are] supposed to be thankful to the US military for having done largely protecting us. No, they are not protecting us. They are stimulating more terrorism; they are making more trouble and they are conquering other land – we are seeing Syria – so many other countries. The troops? Forget their equipment; bring the troops not in 2014. Bring them home tomorrow.