In a colossal blunder, the Pentagon wasted $28 million worth of wrong uniforms for U.S. backed Afghan troops fighting the Taliban. According to official reports, the said uniforms were suited for woodland fighting yet 98% of Afghanistan is desert areas.
Why did the Pentagon approve issuing unfit uniforms?
According to a report made by special inspector John Sopko, the Pentagon approved forest camouflage uniforms because this was the request of the Afghan Defense Minister. Though only 2.1 percent of Afghanistan is covered with forests. This faulty issuance of uniforms was blasted by a 17-page report made by Sopko.
He questions the Pentagon's logic in agreeing with the Afghan Defense Minister and not rely on U.S. military advisers who knows the real needs of Afghan troops. Much more, Sopko is astonished that currently in storage are camouflage uniforms that can work better in an Afghan environment. He added that the U.S. Military has dozens of these kinds of uniforms and that the Pentagon could have just gave it for free, but still insisted of spending millions on inappropriate camouflage.
The Pentagon bought a total of 1,364,602 uniforms with 88,100 extra pants designed for woodland combat. Sopko said that it is customary for the Military to first do a field test of camouflage uniforms if it is effective in the desired combat environment before mass producing it.
However, due to still undisclosed reasons, the Pentagon opted to use up $28 million on uniforms for Afghan troops without any assessment. He argued that what if the Afghan Defense Minister wanted pink uniforms, will the Pentagon also approve such a request?
What is the state of American troops in Afghanistan?
At the moment, the U.S.
hold in Afghanistan is growing weaker everyday due to growing threat of a Taliban resurgence in the Northern part of the country. According to known intelligence reports, terrorist groups are crossing the Pakistan-Afghan border at will. The Pentagon had suggested that Congress force Pakistan to hunt down terrorists that have sought refuge within their borders.
In line with this, U.S. President Donald Trump had approved the order to redeploy American troops into Afghanistan. Defense Secretary James Mattis grimly said that the U.S. Military is losing in Afghanistan and that America can't win this war if the current policy is not changed. Now that Trump had approved the deployment of U.S. troops, it is just a matter of time when a new offensive will be taken to expel ISIS-links groups in the country. However, unless Pakistan cooperates fully with the anti-terrorism movement, the situation in Afghanistan will not be fully solved.
