The Pentagon Is Getting Slammed For Spending An Extra $28 Million Of Our Tax Money On Afghanistan Soldiers' Uniforms "In The Name Of Fashion"

Cpl. Alejandro Pena / U.S. Marine Corps

NBC News – For the past decade, the Pentagon has authorized an apparently unsuitable fashion choice for Afghan soldiers — one that has cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $28 million, a government watchdog for Afghanistan said Wednesday.

The questionable attire involves a uniform featuring a woodland camouflage pattern that “may be inappropriate,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, said in a 17-page report.

Why doesn’t the pattern — fit for a forest — jibe? Afghanistan is primarily desert, and forests make up just 2.1 percent of the nation’s landscape, according to the World Bank.

The report cites Timothy O’Neill, a camouflage consultant and retired Army officer of 25 years, to point out why it matters: “Desert designs don’t work well in woodland areas and woodland patterns perform poorly in the desert.”

Military Times – According to the report, the HyperStealth’s Spec4ce Forest camouflage pattern was chosen by the then-Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak — because he liked what he saw while browsing a website.

“This is just simply stupid on its face. We wasted $28 million of taxpayers’ money in the name of fashion, because the defense minister thought that that pattern was pretty. So if he thought pink or chartreuse was it, would we have done that?” said John Sopko, the inspector general, in an interview with USA Today.

I’m no military expert but as someone with reading comprehension skills, a best friend with a Purple Heart, and the owner of a Zero Blog Thirty t-shirt I feel confident giving my take here – these uniforms were a bad idea.  I mean I’m glad I got to hear it from camouflage consultant and retired 25 year Army officer Timothy O’Neill directly, but to be honest I didn’t need his expert testimony on the fact “woodland patterns perform poorly in the desert.”  That is something I believe every civilian with the most elementary understanding of the word “camouflage” can get a pretty good grasp on – forest camo does not blend well with yellow sand.

Even better:

But the choice of garment pattern wasn’t the only rub, SIGAR said:

“The U.S. government already had rights to multiple uniform patterns that were not in use by U.S. forces, which could have been used by the (Afghan National Army) at no cost, and may have been equally effective in the Afghan environment.”

The decision to use the non-government-owned forest camouflage pattern came after U.S. officials in 2007 found designs on the internet from a company called HyperStealth and showed them to Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak. He “liked what he saw. He liked the woodland, urban, and temperate patterns.”

Three months later, the Afghans settled on the forest-appropriate design.

As part of its review, SIGAR said the Department of Defense has spent $93 million on uniforms for the soldiers since 2007. They bought more than 1.3 million uniforms and 88,000 extra pairs of pants with the forest pattern without ever “determining the pattern’s effectiveness in Afghanistan compared to other available patterns.” Adding onto the costs were zippers instead of buttons for the blouses, the use of hook and loop fasteners, and more pockets, SIGAR said.

The decision to go with that particular style instead of one already available to the U.S. government reportedly cost an extra $26 million to about $28 million.

So we had the rights to plenty of designs that could have been used for free, $0, but because a Defense Minister looked at his computer screen and said “oooooh…that’s dope” we ended up splurging $28 million for it.

Not gonna lie I don’t hate that.  Fashion is fashion.  I mean “look good play good” didn’t come out of nowhere.  If your fighting ability is increased even a tiny bit by zippers, hook and loop fasteners, more pockets, and a fly ass camo design, by all means, take that extra cash out of my taxes.  I already get pillaged so fucking bad on those things what’s a few more bucks.

Wake me up when the Afghan soldiers are marching into battle in man rompers.