Iraq And Afghanistan War Debt Includes Steep Price Tag For Air Conditioning

This week, Beltway lawmakers have ramped up the efforts to negotiate the terms of how and when the nation's debt ceiling will be raised, with President Barack Obama reportedly stepping into the fray to bring about a deal. But once everyone has decided on how the debt ceiling will be renovated, will the stifling DC summer heat still make it uncomfortable to enter the "debt room" to marvel at the new "debt ceiling?" Perhaps we should relocate our debt to Iraq or Afghanistan, where a lot of it is going anyway and where we are at least spending a king's ransom on air conditioning. NPR's "All Things Considered" has the news:

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.

"When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world -- escorting, command and control, medevac support -- when you throw all that infrastructure in, we're talking over $20 billion," Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. Anderson is a retired brigadier general who served as Gen. David Patreaus' chief logistician in Iraq.

See, this can be costly because the fuel that's used to power an air conditioner in remote parts of Afghanistan must travel by convoy over "improved goat trails," which is often a 3-week, 800 mile endeavor. And "Anderson calculates more than 1,000 troops have died in fuel convoys, which remain prime targets for attack."

Luckily, according to Anderson, there is a "simple policy" that, if enacted, could have a "profound impact":

"A simple policy signed by the secretary of defense -- a one- or two-page memo, saying we will no longer build anything other than energy-efficient structures in Iraq and Afghanistan -- would have a profound impact."

A simple policy saying we will no longer build anything other than energy-efficient structures in America might also have a profound impact, say godless socialists.

[Hat tip: ThinkProgress]

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Comments

[tmorris862]

05:01 PM on 06/30/2011

The sad fact is the US Military buyers could care less about using the correct AC units for the hellish 120F heat... In Tucson where we get to 110F a lot I have improved the typical window AC to reduce the amount of energy they use by 30% and to increase the cooliong by 25% all this for about $20 fore each unit.....

The jerks at the Department of Energy ( DOE) could care less these fools dream up $10,000,000 programs that do nothing but come up with an $10,000 AC I can cool an a large portion of our 3,000 SQ FT home on just 1500 watts of power using 5 each small window AC units that operate near 18 SEER I mount these AC unit ouside so they do nor block the view out a window and they can not be hears at all from inside the home.. I have reduced my cooling bill from $390 to under $200.

The fools at DOE care nothing about the typical homeowner they just wat to fund million dollars investigations that do nothing but pay off supporters.

Right now on Ebay I can buy a 5 ton packaged ( totally sealed AC with no need to pay an AC tech ( $1,000 to charge up like a split AC sytem) Goodman 15 SEER unit for just $2,000 with free shipping. For about $200 I can boost this to a SER 18 near the top rating.

[ameleh61]

10:25 AM on 06/29/2011

Nobody wants Troops to suffer without AC. Just power it with solar panels.

[knewsreply]

08:49 PM on 06/28/2011

I've been in that hot area of the world in the Summer. Our Troops deserve a break for the heat and often flies. Since my son served in Iraq, all Troops are sons to me and I inwardly cry when any of them suffer, bleed, and sometimes die protecting our Flag and the freedoms for which it stands.

[Ken Tabor]

06:24 PM on 06/28/2011

20 billion on airconditioning? What are they trying to do change the darn climate over there? They had better be careful before Al...." I invented the internet".... Gore finds out about it. Just more wasted money,effort and blood on a country that could care less about our's.Haven't those folks over there been without A/C for thousands of years.?I guess it's better than pallets full of money vanishing without a trace,at least we know where this money is being wasted.Makes you proud of our government don't it?

[sympathy]

07:36 PM on 06/29/2011

If youbelieve that number I have a bridge for sale. This is a lie, This is one of those numbers that they pad to make sure that contractors, who deliver a lot of this stuff now , get rich and in a big hurry. This will increase substantially the closer we get to the t roops leaving It will double, and we will pay, These wars have been a contractors dream. Nation building.

[liberal]

03:50 PM on 06/28/2011

20 billion for air conditioning and we can't afford health care for our citizens, that's just not right.

[StopMakingSense2]

02:24 PM on 06/28/2011

Bring them all home cut the military budget in half and hand it to the republicans and say here's your smaller government, free health care, ect.... all nicely balanced. The republicans have run this country into the ground with their unfunded military misadventures, tax cuts, deregulation, and a long list of other brain farts that has brought a once great nation to it's knees.

[ThinkGlobal]

02:18 PM on 06/28/2011

This waste of 20 billion is disgusting. And Middle Class Americans can not afford higher education.

[wheelzroller]

01:51 PM on 06/28/2011

It is hot in the Desert. I am sure that a few people made some money on this Deal, but the Troops
deserve all the Comfort that we can offer them ! I have no problem with the cost.

[austinreid]

01:12 PM on 06/28/2011

I had no idea that troops got air conditioning I thought that was too much of a luxury for a war zone.

[dennis1943]

12:27 PM on 06/28/2011

If you can't stand the heat,get out of the kitchen......................

[BacSi]

10:32 AM on 06/28/2011

The troops and the Marines we have today are the best in the history of the US.

Of that I have no doubt. Better selected, better trained, much much better equipped. Better than those that went before them.

But what a picture it makes. For any well developed western country to be invading the hard hard Middle East desert or the hard hard SE Asia jungles and to have those few fighting combat men trailed by a multi-billion dollar support system.

Creating giant a/c PX's. Nice a/c movie theaters. Cell phones to keep in touch with the family back home on a daily basis. Great chow served in well a/c eateries. Burgers. Ice cream. Round eye women.

How the heck can you fight a war against hard core natives of the region that thrive in the environment? Superior technology I guess is the answer the military is trying to give.

We may be better selected, very much better trained, 10000% better equipped, control of the sky and the sea-----but in the long run we will lose. The land of the giant px does not beat hard core charlie. Not now. Not in 1968.

Next time----and god I hope there is no next time----send in the warriors and leave the pogues and remf's and all the a/c and the giant px's back home where they belong.

[sistermoon3]

09:29 AM on 06/28/2011

so they are supposed to just die from heat exhaustion, you have to be kidding me right?

[mdlawyer2]

10:14 AM on 06/28/2011

You're kidding right, please? Do the locals all whither and die? If that happened, then there'd be nobody there to fight and the troops could come home. $20 Billion for A/C and 1,000 troops killed in fuel convoys to support A/C, that defies common sense; you're right that can't be bought.

[BacSi]

10:36 AM on 06/28/2011

Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate. That and get use to it.

If the enemy can fight in this weather then our troops can as well. Our troops have before. They can now.

The soft NEED a/c.

The hard just wait you out and then try to kill you as you adjust to life beyond the wire with no a/c.

[oldcliche]

01:07 PM on 06/28/2011

Yeah, I'm thinking combatants hiding in the mountains are not enjoying the AC lifestyle.

[Ron Bananas]

08:18 AM on 06/28/2011

Can we agree on just one thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PpMdTmVMpo&feature=related

[huff reader]

07:37 AM on 06/28/2011

Why pick on air conditioning?

It's bad enough to sen our young people off to a counter-productive war, but why should we try to fry them in the process?

Frankly, I'm GLAD they are providing them air conditioning. It's enough of a hellhole, without.

[Shain Eighmey]

08:48 AM on 06/28/2011

I agree. I don't think the solution to this is to cut off air conditioning to our troops, but perhaps we can turn it off at all of the federal buildings in D.C.?

[sam green 31605]

07:30 AM on 06/28/2011

you ever live in a tent??? you bake in the summer and you freeze in the winter.shtfu

[MGWilson]

07:55 AM on 06/28/2011

True, but a little insulation saves money either way. Didn't they consider this? Evidently not.

[Bishop999999999]

08:22 AM on 06/28/2011

Not when we already have perfectly good tents in inventory. Buying all new, more expensive tents for a conflict that is drawing down does not make sense, as we don't have the time for the tents to pay for themselves.

[BacSi]

08:29 AM on 06/28/2011

Yes I have. When I had the good fortune to be under a tent. Living high on the hog if I could look up and not see the sky.

Temps 1/2 of the year that went up to 120F and beyond. Then 1/2 the year when it rained buckets and buckets and buckets for weeks on end.

What did I learn about not having a/c for over a year? Or a tent.

I got used to and could thrive in that 120F heat. For days on end while out humping the jungle and the mountains with rucks so heavy they drove you to your knees.

If Charlie did not have a/c and could thrive then why not us?

The humping outside the wire combat man is IMO better off without it.

Learn to embrace the elements. Be tougher than your enemy. Not just better trained, equipped, with the lock on high tech toys and gizmos.

Just like those Pacific vets of WW2, the 1stMarDiv who fought their way out of the Chosin in minus 30 F, and the boys of ICorps in over 120F.

If we actually NEED a/c-----then we have already lost.

[sympathy]

07:49 PM on 06/29/2011

All volunteer army. They have to trick them with something. It's hard to believe that bigger fools and liars than the Nixon Admin could be in charge of anything but look at what these troops have had to deal with for 10 years. I'm sorry that you didn't have the same deal, and clearly the gov't has learned little.