We’ve gotten to the point in America where a $34 million expense is – at the federal level, anyway – not even a drop in the bucket. It barely registers, and produces limited outrage.
Think about it … our national debt is racing toward $17 trillion and we’ve blown nearly $1.5 trillion (and thousands of lives) on a pair of pointless wars. So the news that our military has spent $34 million on a 64,000 square foot headquarters in the Helmund province of Afghanistan is a prima facie waste even if it wound up being used for its intended purpose.
Here’s the thing though … according to Gannett’s Defense News, this particular facility isn’t ever going to used by the U.S. Armed Forces. According to a report the news service obtained from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR),
“It is unused, unoccupied and presumably will never be used for its intended purpose,” the SIGAR report noted.
Wait … what?
Yeah …
Here’s an idea. Why don’t warmongers John McCain and Lindsey Graham – who want to put “boots on the ground” all over the world – pay a visit to this facility?
Seriously, it would be great. They could tour it. With TV cameras in tow. Talk about how it’s “keeping us safe from the evil doers” and what not. Then they could tell us what, exactly, the other $1.5 trillion we’ve pissed away in Iraq and Afghanistan has done.
Nice work fellas …
***
67 comments
Without a thousand troops to protect and support them. Could just be a Marine or Army patrol.
years ago I was involved in redeveloping the Myrtle Beach Airbase after it was closed during the BRAC(Base Redevelopment and Closure) plan.
Upon touring the base there was much construction taking place. Upon inquiry, I was told that contracts had been let and the work would continue even though the base waas being closed!
The work and renovations of the buildings was for naught, the buildings and improvements would NEVER be used!
I later saw the same thing taking place at the Charleston Naval Base.
I never could get info on the amount of Federal money wasted; but, viewing the work, it would have been substantial. I’m sure some politically well connected fat cats with plenty of campaign donations benefitted greatly for the useless work.
years ago I was involved in redeveloping the Myrtle Beach Airbase after it was closed during the BRAC(Base Redevelopment and Closure) plan.
Upon touring the base there was much construction taking place. Upon inquiry, I was told that contracts had been let and the work would continue even though the base waas being closed!
The work and renovations of the buildings was for naught, the buildings and improvements would NEVER be used!
I later saw the same thing taking place at the Charleston Naval Base.
I never could get info on the amount of Federal money wasted; but, viewing the work, it would have been substantial. I’m sure some politically well connected fat cats with plenty of campaign donations benefitted greatly for the useless work.
Government will honor contract because it was in the budget when it was awarded
Jim, this site does not care for reality or truth. Why bother to tell them? It messes up their little stories.
Government will honor contract because it was in the budget when it was awarded
Jim, this site does not care for reality or truth. Why bother to tell them? It messes up their little stories.
So far,I’ve only been to a military 3-way,and it was good(although,I’m not military,my cock is popular,Amen),butt, that looks like the perfect place for a huge military (and friends) ORGY,although Lindsey and John are not invited.I take that back.John McCain is invited.He is so fucking HOT! Lindsey can stay home,and watch the cam,and cry like the little fucking girl he is!
John McCain is invited.He is so fucking HOT!
Over time you have posted some rather radical and disgusting (to me) stuff on this blog. But was it [Dana] Plato, who said , hey, diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks?
But this! You need help dude. I’m worried you caught *something* from “T” and it’s rotting your brain.
I am very sorry for anytime I have disgusted you,I didn’t mean to…
Some piano music as an apology?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4AwtWwFkck
So far,I’ve only been to a military 3-way,and it was good(although,I’m not military,my cock is popular,Amen),butt, that looks like the perfect place for a huge military (and friends) ORGY,although Lindsey and John are not invited.I take that back.John McCain is invited.He is so fucking HOT! Lindsey can stay home,and watch the cam,and cry like the little fucking girl he is!
John McCain is invited.He is so fucking HOT!
Over time you have posted some rather radical and disgusting (to me) stuff on this blog. But was it [Dana] Plato, who said , hey, diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks?
But this! You need help dude. I’m worried you caught *something* from “T” and it’s rotting your brain.
I am very sorry for anytime I have disgusted you,I didn’t mean to…
Some piano music as an apology?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4AwtWwFkck
Duh. We piss away money and build over there so we don’t have to piss away money and build over here.
Bring me an order of Freedom Fries and a Budweiser.
‘Murica! !!!! Back to back Undisputed World War Champions!
I want your big, Indian,Redneck,Jew, dick, pissing/cumming all over me,and then we have a simultaneous ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgyAgsDo4sw
Duh. We piss away money and build over there so we don’t have to piss away money and build over here.
Bring me an order of Freedom Fries and a Budweiser.
‘Murica! !!!! Back to back Undisputed World War Champions!
I want your big, Indian,Redneck,Jew, dick, pissing/cumming all over me,and then we have a simultaneous ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgyAgsDo4sw
I drove by that building a couple of days ago with the guy I’m replacing here in fun land. It sits empty just as it appears. The really sad thing is that we spent $30 million to build a building we could have built for $3 million on Bluff Road. It’s nothing more that a large warehouse type “Butler Building”.
The story is that once the furor dies down “over the principal of the thing” the building will be repurposed but it will never be used for its intended purpose.
up vote from me;seriously.mucho military,here,sir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTn_Rdyd6g
Not unusual. Once a milcon is proposed and works its way thru all the Pentagon and Congressional hoops and finally gets built, mucho time has passed. The original need may no longer exist BUT you can’t immediately repurpose the building without getting in big time trouble, e.g. violation of the law. You have to wait for a certain amount of time to pass (I forget how much) before you can repurpose it.We may not like the “rules” but those are the rules until they are changed.
IRT the building cost, I assume you have compared the plans and specs between the $30 mil and $3 mil buildings. Are Bluff Road Butler buildings required to meet the same security and site hardening requirements? Read the fed specs and then reevaluate.
It’s not hardened at all, the concrete barriers you see in the photo are free standing and moveable. It’s a freaking kit building – you can literally buy a similar building from a company called Butler Manufacturing. I’ve put up several of them for the Army though my building days are over for now.
The normal process to harden one of these literally “tin sheds” is to surround it with precast concrete “wall sections” of various height depending on the threat. The reason this monstrosity cost so much is that it had to be hauled piece by piece through the “Northern Distribution Network” a cobbled together rail/ship/truck line that runs into Afghanistan from Eastern Europe.
Much of the war effort in Afghanistan during the early phases was coordinated from an old Soviet Era hanger in Bagram that was basically used as a shell to construct a “building within a building”. The technique saved a bunch of money and allowed for construction to go on pretty much 24/7 – meanwhile, the Air Farce has constructed enough new hangers too park an air wing in two blocks away at who knows what cost. They started that project when I was here last time in 2010 and it looks to be finished now.
All buildings of this type (contingency construction) are intended to have limited life spans – the old WWII barrack out on Jackson were only supposed to last 10 years (the last were torn down about 10 years ago, 60 years after their ground laying and 50 years after they were supposed to have been obsolete.
You can always get funding for “temporary” buildings. Getting funding for permanent buildings takes an Act of Congress, literary.
Oops. literally not literary.
I know of a wooden “T-5” building on a WWII-era bomber base still being used, and four or five others nearby (including a large one with a big concrete vault in the center rumored to be for storing the secret Norden bombsights).
I drove by that building a couple of days ago with the guy I’m replacing here in fun land. It sits empty just as it appears. The really sad thing is that we spent $30 million to build a building we could have built for $3 million on Bluff Road. It’s nothing more that a large warehouse type “Butler Building”.
The story is that once the furor dies down “over the principal of the thing” the building will be repurposed but it will never be used for its intended purpose.
up vote from me;seriously.mucho military,here,sir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTn_Rdyd6g
Not unusual. Once a milcon is proposed and works its way thru all the Pentagon and Congressional hoops and finally gets built, mucho time has passed. The original need may no longer exist BUT you can’t immediately repurpose the building without getting in big time trouble, e.g. violation of the law. You have to wait for a certain amount of time to pass (I forget how much) before you can repurpose it.We may not like the “rules” but those are the rules until they are changed.
IRT the building cost, I assume you have compared the plans and specs between the $30 mil and $3 mil buildings. Are Bluff Road Butler buildings required to meet the same security and site hardening requirements? Read the fed specs and then reevaluate.
It’s not hardened at all, the concrete barriers you see in the photo are free standing and moveable. It’s a freaking kit building – you can literally buy a similar building from a company called Butler Manufacturing. I’ve put up several of them for the Army though my building days are over for now.
The normal process to harden one of these literally “tin sheds” is to surround it with precast concrete “wall sections” of various heights depending on the threat. The reason this monstrosity cost so much is that it had to be hauled piece by piece through the “Northern Distribution Network” a cobbled together rail/ship/truck line that runs into Afghanistan from Eastern Europe.
Much of the war effort in Afghanistan during the early phases was coordinated from an old Soviet Era hanger in Bagram that was basically used as a shell to construct a “building within a building”. The technique saved a bunch of money and allowed for construction to go on pretty much 24/7 – meanwhile, the Air Farce has constructed enough new hangers too park an air wing in two blocks away at who knows what cost. They started that project when I was here last time in 2010 and it looks to be finished now.
All buildings of this type (contingency construction) are intended to have limited life spans – the old WWII barrack out on Jackson were only supposed to last 10 years (the last were torn down about 10 years ago, 60 years after their ground laying and 50 years after they were supposed to have been obsolete. Few people realize this but the National Mall in DC was covered in temporary buildings during WWI, those building were then used to house patients during the flu pandemic of 1918-1920, then they housed some of FDR’s New Deal BS offices. They later housed much of the WWII offices in DC and were only torn down with the completion of the Pentagon in 43 and the end of the War. All of the buildings on the Mall had a building number that ended with “T” for temporary – they were around for about 30 years as well.
You can always get funding for “temporary” buildings. Getting funding for permanent buildings takes an Act of Congress, literary.
Oops. literally not literary.
I know of a wooden “T-5” building on a WWII-era bomber base still being used, and four or five others nearby (including a large one with a big concrete vault in the center rumored to be for storing the secret Norden bombsights).
This ignorant F@*K drones on and on about military spending, yet he’s Silent when the US Government funds Anti-Justice, Race-HATE Squads in Florida…
What about billions and billions and billions on Obama Travel, IRS Wild Parties and “Alternative” (to having a brain) Energy…
Yet training flights are grounded for the people who make sure FITS’ ignorant @$$ can sleep w/o attack….
This Fool better just hope the armpit where he dwells is not the first hit by the people who’d love to kill his Dumb@$$ just because he LIVES IN America…. (notice I did not call this freakin’ idiot an American)….
I’d LOVE for him to bail to a country where they worship Ignorance, like he is well-equipped with…
Who are you calling an ignorant fuck?
Sic
Chancroid, you’re confusing Obama with your repub congress.
Graham, who just last month, raged that we should continue to wage war in Afghanistan “Until we get it right!” Our bloodthirsty senator continues to support wasting over $6 billion dollars A MONTH on a unwinable war against a third world country that poses no threat to us. The only benefits to the war go to the corrupt warlords and our military suppliers who charge up to $400 a gallon for fuel used in military vehicles. And you complain about $3.50 a gallon! Afghanistan is little more than a raid on our treasury by Graham’s inside the beltway cronies.
too many numbers.I hate word problems,and if i see the fucking word,’cronies’,again ,there will be some bleeding man-cherries,around here,but that’s what ya’ll want and/or need
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEFhuvg1SEA
Exactly how much would you charge to deliver fuel in the requested quantities and to specific locales in Afghanistan?
That’s it? Not the slightest bit of outrage that taxpayers are picking up the tab for fuel to the tune of $400 a gallon?
This is why two needless wars have taken place over the past twelve years ending the lives of 7,000 US troops, 40,000 wounded and over 2,000,000 Iraqis and Afghans displaced, wounded or killed….because the public is showing no signs of outrage.
So your outrage would be to stop fuel shipments and let them walk? They are there whether we like it or not. Screwing over our troops will not end the conflicts. They didn’t place themselves there. You are working the wrong end of the equation.
How did your elected representatives respond when you directly confronted them (that does not mean posting on this site) with your outrage?
got me going. do like your comments,but I’m not good with acronyms.is that,Crosby,Nash,Stills,Young and Dylan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQRlaFPXgZk
Graham, who just last month, raged that we should continue to wage war in Afghanistan “Until we get it right!” Our bloodthirsty senator continues to support wasting over $6 billion dollars A MONTH on a unwinable war against a third world country that poses no threat to us. The only benefits to the war go to the corrupt warlords and our military suppliers who charge up to $400 a gallon for fuel used in military vehicles. And you complain about $3.50 a gallon! Afghanistan is little more than a raid on our treasury by Graham’s inside the beltway cronies.
too many numbers.I hate word problems,and if i see the fucking word,’cronies’,again ,there will be some bleeding man-cherries,around here,but that’s what ya’ll want and/or need
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEFhuvg1SEA
Exactly how much would you charge to deliver fuel in the requested quantities and to specific locales in Afghanistan?
That’s it? Not the slightest bit of outrage that taxpayers are picking up the tab for fuel to the tune of $400 a gallon?
This is why two needless wars have taken place over the past twelve years ending the lives of 7,000 US troops, 40,000 wounded and over 2,000,000 Iraqis and Afghans displaced, wounded or killed….because the public is showing no signs of outrage.
So your outrage would be to stop fuel shipments and let them walk? They are there whether we like it or not. Screwing over our troops will not end the conflicts. They didn’t place themselves there. You are working the wrong end of the equation.
How did your elected representatives respond when you directly confronted them (that does not mean posting on this site) with your outrage?
got me going. do like your comments,but I’m not good with acronyms.is that,Crosby,Nash,Stills,Young and Dylan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQRlaFPXgZk
Bush’s BIG victory in Iraq looks a lot more impressive now, compared to the TOTAL F*#* Up Obama has been in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan….
In Iraq the people vote and there is order…but where Obama has ruled, he is lost and screwed up. After supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, that turned into a brutal Civil War..what a bumbling idiot…
Obama demonstrates the DISASTER foreign policy would be w/ another equal IDIOT like FITS running it…
PS: Thank God Bush was president after Clinton’s 9-11 attack….could you imagine (God forbid) Obama dealing w/ 9-11. WOW!!!!
lol… “Clinton’s 9-11 attack?” That’s some good stuff there.
Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” = premature ejaculation.
There was no victory in Iraq.
But it was accomplished…and Obama took credit for it…while avoiding and denying the mess after mess he is making in all Foreign Policy……
So in your universe it was Bush who was responsible for finding and killing Bin Laden, right?
Bin Laden totally exemplifies liberals. It was a meaningless action on a no-longer-a-threat target, that we then paid dearly for.
It was over-hyped and over-commercialized because it was a King Obama killing, ordered by pacifists, and OKed by military-hating radicals…
If you’re hanging your hat on that, it just shows how you have NOTHING but failure otherwise…
You, friend, are delusional!
Petraeus originally requested that be built for use as a love shack…
Petraeus originally requested that be built for use as a love shack…
Here’s an article reporting the US military will leave behind over 9 billion dollars worth of equipment when they leave Afghanistan because it would be too expensive to bring it home. Also million dollar pieces of equipment are being sold as scrap for less than pennies on the dollar. Read it and weep…http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2013/07/11/our-afghan-wasteland/
Here’s an article reporting the US military will leave behind over 9 billion dollars worth of equipment when they leave Afghanistan because it would be too expensive to bring it home. Also million dollar pieces of equipment are being sold as scrap for less than pennies on the dollar. Read it and weep…http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2013/07/11/our-afghan-wasteland/