Pentagon spent $94 million on useless camouflage uniforms

Newsweek magazine accused the Pentagon of spending money on useless needs. According to the publication, Washington allocated almost $ 94 million for the Afghan soldiers' uniform with camouflage designed for the forest landscape, while forests occupy only two percent of the country's territory.

Newsweek mentioned an excerpt from the statement of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Commission (SIGAR), which was established in 2008 to Control of funds allocated for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, that the decision of the Ministry Of Defense to supply the Afghan Armed Forces with the camouflage pattern uniform was not based on an assessment of its suitability for Afghanistan's environment.

Journalists noted that Afghan officials had chosen forest camouflage, based on their personal preferences, without taking into account the real situation in the country.

The NATO mission "Strong Support" has been in Afghanistan since January 2015. According to the bilateral agreement, there are about 12,000 servicemen in the country who are training Afghan power structures.

'Priceless' fuel

In May, it also became known of the Pentagon's misuse of the purchase of fuel for the army. The Washington Post published the documents, from which it became clear that the Ministry of Defense officials overestimated the expenses, and spend surplus money on preparing the Syrian opposition and the operation in Afghanistan.According to the newspaper, since 2015, from the funds received due to deliberately overstated budget requests, $ 80 million had gone to training the opposition forces in Syria, and $ 1.4 billion for "unforeseen expenses" in Afghanistan.

At the same time, the Pentagon is the world's largest consumer of fuel: the military annually purchases about one hundred million barrels for the needs of ground forces, aviation, and fleet.The Pentagon acknowledged that in the period from 2010 to 2016, the department really received $ 5.6 billion buying fuel. Officials claimed that they did not expect to receive additional funds at their disposal, but did not take into account the fall in energy prices in the calculations.

After the scandal with the fuel experts expressed the opinion that it would not pass without a trace for the Pentagon. So, the political scientist Pavel Svyatenkov admitted that violations could become an occasion for the parliamentary investigation.

On Sputnik radio, the political scientist said that in America every penny was controlled by the Congress, so it would require the report in the case of confirmation the fact about wasted money, not matter how much that amount had been.

Shock for Mattis

Meanwhile, in 2016 experts from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, for the first time in five years recorded an increase in military spending in the United States. As a result, the share of Americans in the world "spending on the war" was 36%.

Despite the huge funds allocated to the Pentagon, the combat readiness of the US military was even questioned by its own superiors. In mid-June, the state of the army was criticized by Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has held the office since January 2017.

During a hearing at the House Committee on Armed Services of the US House of Representatives, on Twitter AFP reported that the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis gave the testimony, claiming that he was shocked by the low level of the US combat readiness.

In addition, in early May it became known that Mattis had ordered a review of the US missile defense program. The process will be led by the Deputy Minister of Defense and the deputy head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the final report will be submitted to President Donald Trump before the end of the year.In 2018, Washington intends to sharply increase military spending. Trump asked the Congress for $ 639 billion, which should go to the needs of the Pentagon.