According to a recently published Pentagon study, US military outposts intended to accommodate Afghan citizens evacuated from Afghanistan as part of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the country had experienced hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
The report follows the evacuation of roughly 76,000 Afghan people over many days in August 2021 to staging locations in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Italy, Bahrain, and Germany.
The refugees were subsequently sent to eight Department of Defense locations for temporary shelter.
According to the US Department of Defense Inspector General, 11 of the locations provided estimates to restore pre-Operation Allies Welcome infrastructure, equipment, and consumables.
During the violent, failed retreat that saw Afghanistan fall under Taliban control, 120,000 refugees were transported to the United States over the course of 17 days.
According to the study, the facilities were damaged for an estimated $257.48 million, including $174.9 million for Army stations, $3.21 million for Navy sites, $63 million for Air Force locations, and $16.37 million for Marine Corps bases.
Some bases sought more money from the Department of Defense than others. Fort Bliss in Texas, which received 11,472 migrants, only requested $500,000 in maintenance expenditures, but Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, which housed roughly the same number of immigrants, requested $145.6 million.
According to Air Force sources, the harm inflicted by the Afghan nationals was irreparable, describing the damage as “tables, chairs, and cots broken by guests and tents and cots ruined by spray paint, human biological matter, and holes.”
The report claimed that the enormous expenses to US taxpayers caused by the refugees harmed the US military’s readiness for future war operations.
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