Afghanistan: U.S. Spends $20 Billion Per Year for Air Conditioning in Tents

July 29th, 2010

This astonishing statistic is mentioned in the audio feature on the page linked below.

Via: PRI:

The term we were looking for is “Forward Operating Base” or FOB. The US has many FOBs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The large ones have many tents and other structures where personnel live and work. And all of them need to be heated in the winter, and cooled in the summer. That can take a lot of fuel.

Steve Anderson is a retired Brigadier General who was General David Petraeus’s chief logistician in Iraq. He says the Pentagon should find ways to make structures at FOBs and other military compounds more energy efficient, not only to save money and be greener, but also, to save lives.

Posted in Economy, War | Top Of Page

6 Responses to “Afghanistan: U.S. Spends $20 Billion Per Year for Air Conditioning in Tents”

  1. tochigi says:

    and they think they are not going to have their criminal murderous arses booted out of the country? i haven’t listened to the audio, but i wonder how much petroleum it takes to fuel their 20 billion dollar air-conditioned carry-on-camping-and-killing sprees?

    and people look at me like i’ve lost my mind when i tell them that the US$ empire is finished within five years. i cannot LOL at this because fascist corporatism is not even vaguely funny.

  2. Mike Lorenz says:

    “and people look at me like i’ve lost my mind when i tell them that the US$ empire is finished within five years.”

    It never ceases to amaze me how many people either A.) can’t wrap their heads around how much money this country pisses away on “defense” every year compared to what it spends on other things, or B.)are willing to rationalize it because they buy into the whole Jack Nicholson-“you can’t handle the truth”- the boogie man is going to get us bullshit.

    Didn’t Kevin post a graph some years ago that showed how much the government was spending on Iraq and Afghanistan compared to other things like infrastructure and such? I wish I had a copy of that to keep in my wallet. Sometimes a good visual aid can have more impact than the most compelling logical argument.

  3. ronjondoe says:

    Having been to both Afg and Iraq, I can say that life would be extremely difficult there without the heat and a/c and I was amazed at how well the units were able to cope with it and keep the insides of these tents comfortable while at chow or at night after work….EVERY STRUCTURE has heat-a/c and every volt of electricity is generated from diesel powered generators…My thought while in country was (though I have no military background and was a civilian worker, I know military history and strategy…), why do the Taliban NOT attack the supply line of this occupying force? The tail on this beast is HUGE, with massive 30 to 40 truck convoys moving every day up from Kuwait for Iraq and up from Pak for Afg, of food, fuel and materiel that typically only had a lead and tail private/civilian contractor gun truck…The cabs on the convoy trucks would have heavy plate armor over the windshields and side windows (at best) or heavy mesh (at worst) and some had obviously been shot at/up, but were still rollin’….of course, there is public info now that the US Mil is paying off the Taliban to NOT attack the supply line, but you have to wonder, given that if they did it would be game over in both countries, since everything moves via truck, WHY, if they want the US out so badly, they don’t just cut off the tail?!? An army moves on its stomach, and with no food and fuel, this army would be in serious trouble, so you have wonder what the fuck?

  4. tochigi says:

    WHY, if they want the US out so badly, they don’t just cut off the tail?

    very good question, except you gave the game away earlier when you asked

    why do the Taliban NOT attack the supply line of this occupying force?

    you have succumbed to the myth of “the Taliban”. yes, the Taliban exisit, and yes, they had control over most of the country for a few years prior to December 2001. but the resistance is NOT “the Taliban”. it is not a single force or militia or even a vaguely aligned collection of groups. the resistance is everyone who is against the occupation. everyone who resists. everyone who wants to see the back of every last murdering foreigner who says they come to help Afghanistan but carry on killing and destroying. i think eight and a half years is pretty sufficient time for most Afghanis to get the real message. that being “we don’t care at all about your life, death, livelihood or customs or culture”. the message form the US and its cronies is loud and clear and bloody and repetitious. say one thing, do the opposite. actions speak louder than words. the US empire supports corrupt carpetbaggers and brutal warlords. it kills whole families “by mistake”. it says “sorry” and then does it again and again. “the Taliban” is not what the invaders are fighting, they are fighting everyone that they cannot pay off. some of the resistance are attacking fuel convoys, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. but there is no central Taliban command structure. different groups act tactically to suit their own purposes in the short term. my guess is that attacks on supply lines will grow, just as attacks on patrols have grown. the Afghanis have time on their side and they know it. the US empire can only go the same way as the Soviets. and they will. mark my words.

  5. ronjondoe says:

    @tochigi:
    I agree with you what say; my comment was mostly rhetorical, given the nonsensical status quo there and this gigantic strategic target and yet, voila, no major attacks on the main artery of a treasure-sucking beast from hell draped across the entire region…
    A/C rocks when you are in the fuckin’ desert tho! more nonsense to go with the nonsense…

  6. Kevin says:

    @ronjondoe

    http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/afghanistan_july_2010.html#photo24

    Afghans collect fuel from a tanker shot up in an attack on a NATO supply convoy in Baghlan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, July 6, 2010.

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