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.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.