Kabul, Afghanistan: When US Marines withdrew from Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province last month, they faced a task that was something like cleaning out a stuffy attic covering 10 square miles (25.8 sq km).
In a series of multibillion dollar decisions, the Marines and Pentagon planners decided what stayed, what went and what got tossed into the trash — or burnt.
They decided to leave 420,000 bottles of water, which if lined up end-to-end would stretch for more than 50 miles. But they incinerated about 10,000 MREs that might have fed Afghans but were nearing expiration.
More than 7,500 computers were destroyed or given away. But the televisions remained. As for the 1.6 million pounds (725,748kg) of ammunition stored on the base? Afghan soldiers taking over will be lucky to find even a single live bullet.
The Marines’ departure from Leatherneck, the largest base closure to date of the United States’ longest war, offers a preview of the decisions American military leaders are making as coalition forces withdraw from Afghanistan. Mindful of Afghan forces’ limitations — and seething over the Islamic State’s seizure of former American military compounds and equipment in Iraq — the departing forces here appear to be stripping bases down to just the basics.
Though about 20,000 American troops remain in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has promised to reduce that number to 9,800 by the end of the December, with all troops gone by the end of 2016. So far this year, about 60 coalition bases have been closed or handed over to the Afghans. Another 25 remain, including sprawling Bagram and Kandahar airfields, and will likely be turned over to Afghan control within two years.
“We are trying to figure out how to leave as little as possible in terms of infrastructure and equipment, but on the other hand giving them as much as they can handle,” said Col. Doug Patterson, logistics officer for Marine Expeditionary Brigade Afghanistan, who managed the pullout.
Before leaving Leatherneck, the Marines dismantled 300 buildings, flew out hundreds of armoured vehicles and tried to use up their vast stockpiles of fuel. What was left included just concrete buildings and bunkers, generators, air conditioners, television sets and underground utilities.
Just since January, about 600 million pounds of US military equipment have been transported out of the country, including 25,000 vehicles and 20-foot containers packed with everything from artillery pieces to coffee pots. The US-led coalition plans to move out about 8,000 containers and vehicles before the new year, commanders said. The US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is expected to cost $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion) to $7 billion, according to US Central Command.
“It’s been a very steady glide path,” said Lt. Col. Michelle Ager, an Australian who heads the international coalition’s Redeployment Cell. “We are nearly where we need to be to conduct” the post-2014 mission.
Patterson and Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, commander of the coalition’s joint command, stressed that concerns about the Islamic State’s expansion in Iraq — and concerns that the Afghan Taliban might do the same — are minor factors in the decision-making. Instead, military leaders say they are making choices based on efficiency, cost to American taxpayers and Afghan forces’ ability to maintain hand-me-downs.
Maj. Gen. Sayed Malik Malook, commander of the Afghan army unit that took over Camp Leatherneck, said he was satisfied with what remained.
“They left behind lots of televisions, and that is enough for us,” Malook said. “Things like MRAPs [Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles], we can’t maintain that stuff because we don’t have the workshop and we don’t have the spare parts.”
But some Afghan commanders say they’ve felt slighted by coalition forces elsewhere.
“They left behind a generator, two containers and some gym equipment like weights, which were usable,” said one commander at a Kandahar base that was handed over to Afghan forces this year. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. “But they took the things that we really needed, like their radios and internet systems.”
“In another nearby base, they left just a few tents,” he added.
The closure of Camp Leatherneck vividly illustrated the choices Pentagon leaders are making as they pass security responsibility to the Afghan military, an allied force that is still struggling to battle a resurgent Taliban.
Worried the Afghans wouldn’t be able to maintain a base built to accommodate 26,000 people, the Marines sold many of the wooden or metal buildings on the scrap market to shrink the base to one that can house just 10,000 people.
Among the buildings left standing was the 64,000 square foot, $28 million command-and-control structure — constructed for US forces but never used — that became a symbol of Pentagon excesses during the war.
“It’s basically bare-bones, but has lights and power,” Patterson said. “We did put some furniture in there.”
Of the 298 concrete buildings left standing, many stayed equipped with air conditioners and generators. Marines also trained Afghan troops in how to use and maintain the water wells and sewage system.
But the Marines removed all of the computers from the base, even those that did not handle classified material. In addition to those that were destroyed, another 1,800 were flown out of Afghanistan, according to a Marine spokeswoman.
One Marine even tossed his $500 Xbox game system in the trash because he was unable to carry it with him but didn’t want to leave it behind.
“If you leave it, then you have to help take care of it,” Patterson said of the decision not to leave computers.
In all, Patterson said, 16,000 pieces of major equipment were removed from Leatherneck, requiring 2,000 sorties in just the last 22 days of the Marines’ mission. Among the items were hundreds of MRAPs, and other armoured vehicles, which they quietly flew out of Afghanistan in early October.
For the their final days on the base, despite continued security threats in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous provinces, Marines were left with only beat-up trucks and all-terrain quads. The base’s quick reaction force, a heavily armed contingent called upon to respond to Taliban assault or emergency, rode around in a white minivan. The only fuel remaining was the amount the Marines needed to get out of Helmand, Patterson said.
The Marines also made sure that the vast stockpiles of ammunition were gone before Afghan troops took control. About half was blown up on site, while the other half was flown back to the United States or to military depots in Kuwait or other parts of Afghanistan. The final 873 Marines to leave the base also carried out about 103,000 rounds of ammunition.
Patterson said US commanders worry most that Afghan forces would become overwhelmed with maintenance responsibilities if too many items are left behind.
“If you give them too much, then they become a garrison force focused on infrastructure instead of the people and ensuring that the country is safe,” Patterson said. “There was a lot of discussion: Do we leave everything or take everything down to desert?”
The office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which is investigating the military’s procedures for handing over bases and excess equipment, says Congress has also appropriated $66 billion to the Department of Defense since 2002 to support Afghan security forces.
John Sopko, the inspector general, wrote in a letter last month to senior Pentagon leaders seeking greater clarity about what items are being handed over to Afghan forces, destroyed or flown home. He cited an August Washington Post story detailing how some excess items were being sold at auction in Afghanistan for just pennies on the dollar.
According to a US Central Command statement, “equipment still required to meet current and future military needs” is being returned to the United States, but “unneeded equipment will be offered to Afghan forces if the equipment meets the needs of Afghan forces.” Equipment determined to be of no use to the Afghans is being offered to US allies or “disposed of in Afghanistan,” the statement said.
Shortly before Marines departed Leatherneck, for example, commanders discovered they still had about 10,000 MREs, which Patterson said cost about $6 each.
Though the cash-strapped Afghan military usually feeds its soldiers just rice and vegetables for lunch, Patterson said the remaining MREs were burnt because officials feared Afghan troops wouldn’t be able to eat them before the expiration date. (Afghan troops are also hesitant to eat American-made food items because they fear they contain pork products.)
But the Marines did leave their dining hall, as well as all those bottles of water.
Bottled on site over the years, the water left by the Marines added to a stockpile of 3 million bottles left by departing British forces, a Marine spokeswoman said.
The water may come in handy, however, if the 1,800 Afghan troops who plan to live at Camp Leatherneck decide to take up weightlifting. Among the materiel the Marines left were at least 14 fully equipped gyms, to help Afghan soldiers bulk up for their continued fight against the Taliban.
“They say they are going to work out,” Patterson said. “Now whether they actually do or not, we’ll see.”
