Real cost of gas at Afghan bases: $400/gal.

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

Keeping American vehicles rolling in Afghanistan while avoiding the perils of hauling in fuel via ground transportation is costing the military big time.

Frosty relations between the U.S. and Pakistan - which led to Pakistan closing its border to Afghanistan-bound truck traffic- haven't helped, either.

The Pentagon is increasingly relying on parachute drops of fuel and other supplies to bases in remote parts of Afghanistan, and as Nathan Hodge of the Wall Street Journal reports, the military estimates such deliveries are spiking the ultimate price of a gallon of fuel to as much as $400 per gallon.

"We're going to burn a lot of gas to drop a lot of gas," Capt. Zack Albaugh, a California Air National Guard pilot with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, told the WSJ. Albaugh would be at the controls of a C-130 cargo plane that drops pallets of food, water, ammunition and fuel by parachute to troops below.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-57337390-503543/real-cost-of-gas-at-afghan-bases-$400-gal/?tag=stack

[izquierdista]

1. I've got a suggestion

Why don't we just drop the whole fucking war first?

[christx30]

9. 10 years

is long enough. Are we even doing any good there any more? All I see coming from that area is bad news for women and education.

[castnet55]

10. executive order

By the Presidents excutive order bypassing congress the Navy will pay about $16.00 per gallon for bio fuel for it's air planes on a carrier. One has to wonder how many gallons does it take to fill up a plane and how many does a carrier have on board. It's getting crazier out there everyday

[toddwv]

11. A Nimitz class aircraft carrier can hold over 3,000,000 gallons of fuel

http://greenanswers.com/q/198041/policy-government/military/how-much-fuel-does-aircraft-carrier-carry

[Plucketeer]

2. And here in the salad bowl of the USA

we've got food production workers who are choosing between food or the gasoline to get to their poverty-wage jobs at $3.70 a gallon. This nation is SO FUCKED UP! :grr::mad::grr::mad:

[FarCenter]

3. Where are they getting fuel from? I thought that the tankers through Pakistan were still blocked?

[RamboLiberal]

5. Article says they are dropping by parachute

[Incitatus]

6. There's another source

"The U.S. military is now burning about 575,000 gallons of fuel per day in Afghanistan. And
about 80 percent of that fuel is coming from refineries in Pakistan.Without the support of Musharraf and the Pakistani military, U.S. forces in Afghanistan would have only one fuel supply, and it would be coming via a precarious logistics line that extends more than 1,000 miles from northern Afghanistan all the way to refineries in Baku, Azerbaijan and
Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan."

http://www.boell.de/downloads/worldwide/bryce_logistical_vulnerabilities.pdf

Pakistan may have shut down the ground border but I doubt they would shoot down supply planes flying over.

[FarCenter]

8. Supply planes from FSR sources of fuel would come from Manas Air Base in Tajikistan

[tblue]

4. And they screamed about the (nonexistent) $16 donut.

This makes me :puke:

[KansDem]

7. This beats the $100 for a load of laundry or the $45 for a case of soda...

Halliburton bills taxpayers $45 per case of soda, $100 per bag of laundry

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2004 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Five former Halliburton employees and one former executive of a Halliburton subcontractor describe egregious examples of abuse involving Halliburton�s Iraq contracts. In a letter written by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), these whistleblowers describe instances where Halliburton employees would abandon or torch new trucks -- worth $80,000 -- if they acquired a flat tire or other minor mechanical problems. Halliburton would subsequently purchase new trucks with U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The former employees also described repeated instances of theft involving both Halliburton and Army personnel. One employee complained to Halliburton's KBR chief, Randy Harl, about the contracting abuse, but two weeks later he was fired.

Another former employee said Halliburton purchased soda for $45 per case and laundry bags for $100 each.

Halliburton Watch

$80,000 for a flat tire? :wow:

[indepat]

14. A microcosm of the holistic and ubiquitous obscenity that defines our Afghanistan and Iraqi

ventures. :patriot:

[gratuitous]

12. But God help the welfare queen who chisels food stamps out of $53

Irresponsibly feeding her children when there's a war going on!

[PSPS]

13. The gouging oil companies have to get their "campaign contributions" from somewhere

As always, it's just a giant money laundering operation.

Taxpayer -> treasury -> corporate amerika -> private yachts, hookers, private islands, and a portion recycled back to the politicians that made it all happen.