The great Yogi Berra once said, " It ain't over 'til it's over "
That seems to be the mantra for all things Afghanistan....
IF the enclosed news story isn't the surest sign that the 2014 "yap-yap" about Afghanistan is as worthless as any other promise made by a Politician, I'll be shocked. There are lies and then there are damned lies.
If the POLS would just be straight up about things, it would be so much less painful for all involved.
We need to be here in Afghanistan for the Afghan people, our own defense interests and as a stabilizing force in the region.
No my dear friends, this game is going into extra innings....and then some.
U.S., Pakistan sign deal to allow supply routes through 2015
By Richard Leiby, Tuesday, July 31, WASHINGTON POST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan will allow NATO supply convoys to cross its territory into Afghanistan until the end of 2015, one year beyond the deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces there, under an agreement signed on Tuesday by U.S. and Pakistani officials.
The pact seems to close, for now, one of the most contentious chapters in the long-turbulent relationship between Washington and Islamabad, cementing cooperation by Pakistan in winding down the war in Afghanistan at least in terms of logistical assistance. Washington also has urged Islamabad to step up its participation in the peace process by bringing to the negotiating table militant groups that shelter in Pakistani’s tribal belt and regularly cross the border to attack NATO troops.
The so-called “memorandum of understanding” signed on Tuesday also provides the option for both sides to extend the deal in one-year intervals beyond Dec. 31, 2015. And it would apply to other NATO nations if they sign separate pacts with Pakistan.
Although Pakistan ended its seven-month blockade of NATO supplies earlier this month, the pact formalizes some key details, including a ban on transporting lethal supplies. And it lays out security arrangements Pakistan will provide for the thousands of container trucks and oil tankers whose routes originate at the port of Karachi.
Last week, after the war-provisioning convoys began rolling in significant numbers, Pakistan once again shut down the routes when a trucker was fatally shot in an attack attributed to the Pakistani Taliban, which has vowed to kill anyone who drives for NATO.
Pakistani officials said Tuesday that the convoys would resume only after the routes – which span hundreds of miles -- are suitably protected. Under the new arrangement, police in cities and towns would handle security until the convoys reach the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where nation’s paramilitary Frontier Corps would take over.
The pact was signed in a ceremony at Rawalpindi by a senior Pakistani defense ministry official, Rear Admiral Farrokh Ahmed, and the U.S. Embassy Chargé d'Affaires, Richard Hoagland.
The agreement formalizes the verbal agreements that the United States reached in the past with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s most recent military ruler, who was forced into exile in 2008 after civilians took power.
Musharraf was able to set foreign policy and forge alliances as he saw fit. The deal he struck in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was a quid pro quo: Pakistan would cooperate in the war against terrorism, including allow the U.S. supply routes, in exchange for billions in aid.
The U.S. eventually designated Pakistan a “major non-NATO ally,” but that alliance, severely tested by the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, essentially collapsed after a U.S. airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Afghan border posts last November.
The signed agreement is significant in that it appears to have been reached with the absence of overt Pakistani military involvement, U.S. officials have said the Pakistani generals stood back to allow civilian leaders to negotiate the pact, which proved to be a slow, politicized and unwieldy process.
Some Pakistani officials have described the NATO route agreement as a watershed moment, signaling that the “one phone call” days of Washington-Islamabad relations are over, and a sign that civilian rulers, for all their struggles in solving the nation’s social and economic ills, now have a voice in foreign policy.
Looks like we left a substantial amount of gear in Iraq...which is really no surprise as we can't possibly bring all the stuff back, nor would we want to. By the time you have housing units, porta-potties, etc. there for any amount of time, you really (really) don't want them back as they are in pretty beat up shape.
Hope we got top dollar for the M1 Abrams and other workable vehicles...I am sure we paid $$$$$ for them when we bought them.
Gear galore left in Iraq as last troops pull out
U.S. command says it’s not worth hauling back
By Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
Thursday, December 15, 2011
If the U.S. military held a yard sale, the rummaging would look a lot like what has been going on in Iraq.
Troops are leaving a bounty of leftovers as they exit the country this month, abandoning dining-hall tables and chairs, tents, air conditioners and old vehicles.
Unlike a traditional American yard sale, the military bric-a-brac is free. The stuff likely would be dumped back home.
For an Iraqi force moving into once-bustling U.S. bases, the accouterments are just the thing to make the soldier's life a little more comfortable as he takes on the full load of fighting insurgents against the government.
The State Department, which inherits the lead U.S. role in Iraq on Jan. 1, also is accepting hand-me-downs, such as armored vehicles and surveillance electronics to protect its turf.
"We've gone through a very extensive review process to determine what we need to take back to the United States, what gets reconditioned, what we can afford to transfer to the State Department, or to state and local governments back in the United States, or to the Iraqi government," said Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.
"It's really the leftover things we've transferred to the Iraq government."
The command estimates that it has bequeathed to the Iraqi government more than 4 million pieces of this and that, valued at $580 million. However, the military is saving more than $1 billion in shipping costs.
Here is some of what Iraq is getting when it assumes control of all U.S. bases:
• Containerized housing units, air conditioners and gym equipment.
• Generators, water and fuel tanks, cars and stoves.
• Tables, washers and dryers, portable chemical toilets; and large, portable concrete walls and barriers.
"They take a crane and move around on flatbeds as they need it," Gen. Buchanan said. "It's certainly not worth the cost to us to to get all these pieces of concrete anywhere back to the U.S."
With the sprawling Camp Victory complex that surrounds the country's international airport, the Iraqis also are receiving prison cells, including the ones that held Saddam Hussein.
Iraq also gets a waste-treatment facility near Tikrit that takes care of contaminated earth and fuel oil.
The U.S. military is keeping its frontline weapons systems. Tanks, armored fighting vehicles, spy and strike drones, jet fighters and artillery pieces are going to the United States or to U.S. bases in Europe or Afghanistan.
"Starting with the question of what we need: Obviously, if this is a current piece of military gear - something like vehicles, tanks, artillery pieces, weapons, etc. - that all goes back with our forces," Gen. Buchanan said.
Iraq is buying some of these sophisticated weapons through the Foreign Military Sales program that arms other allies, such as Israel and Egypt.
Iraq is buying 140 of the front-line M1 Abrams tanks. It also is acquiring as many as three dozen F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters.
The United States has given Iraq rifles, pistols and Humvee multipurpose vehicles.
Iraq did not get a "yes" for everything on its wish list. Because of federal transfer regulations, the U.S. military rejected requests for certain sophisticated surveillance electronics that operate out of aerostat balloons and scan large areas.
The State Department, whose diplomats will turn to private security officers for protection as they move around a dangerous landscape, is taking possession of 60 MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected) vehicles.
One of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' first moves in 2007 was to prod the Army and Marine Corps to produce more MRAPs and get them to troops being attacked by improvised explosive devices.
State also received armored Chevrolet Suburbans, as well as surveillance equipment to watch a compound perimeter or detect incoming rockets. U.S. diplomats will work chiefly from the embassy in Baghdad and two consulates.
The U.S. gives away items through the Foreign Excess Personal Property Program. It came up with a list of potential hand-me-downs and negotiated the transfer with the Iraqi government, which had a shopping list.
"All of that stuff went through a process to determine, did we really need it back in the United States?" Gen. Buchanan said.
The answer was "no" for 4 million items.
