My nephew, a US Marine Captain, is stationed there. Got an email from him sayng that it was "One hell of a fireworks display" but that he was okay. Very scary that these thugs are getting their hands on US uniforms.

Under Bush & Cheney, much of the support functions that US Soldiers did were outsourced. We USED to have military laundry done by soldiers. Now it is outsourced to local national civilians. Easy now to go to civilian contractor and steal a few uniforms in the laundry.



Food is now done by contractors. Used to be done by soldiers. It's only a matter of time before you read about Aghans poisoning the food. Food, fuel, beans, bullets, showers, laundry. All now at risk, thanks to W. and friends. American soldiers are no longer self-sufficient, so it means there are gaping holes in security and opportunities for evil everywhere. Thanks George.

ten years is Shrub's fault! (no sarcasm - I mean it!) Completely agree on that count. I thought I had heard something to this effect before, but couldn't remember for sure. I know for certain that it wasn't done that way previously. My late father was in the Army for 27 years, and the only time he ever sent his uniforms out for anything was when his dress blues needed pressing, and that was usually done by the on-base dry cleaner. I always had shoe/boot-polishing duty, and boy, could I do a mean spit-shine!

(Great Map of Camp Bastion at the site)


I've been inside Camp Bastion - and it seemed like the safest place on earth
It was supposed to be impregnable – the safest military base in the world. A veritable fortress positioned in the middle of the arid, treeless, empty Helmand desert, isolated but not vulnerable.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9545508/Ive-been-inside-Camp-Bastion-and-it-seemed-like-the-safest-place-on-earth.html

nothing is impregnable or invulnerable.

How much longer can the cost of this war not cause a rethink of "project Afghanistan?" With Euro in a recession and the US economy needed to keep getting infusing of money from Bernanke and Fed....how can the money keep coming to replace aircraft and supplies to keep this all going?

Plus, we have the other theaters that we are involved in and the cost of maintaining our presence in those areas which are hardly friendly to us at this point in time.

....its time to get the f*** out of there.

I recall it to be a short time period and that the situation also seemed suspicious of incident manufacture.

or would we need more soldiers?

I remember corresponding with an army cook during the Vietnam war. He was a Spec 4. But those were the days of the draft.

Do those positions even exist in the modern, all-volunteer armed forces?

If we wanted to go back to that time and not use local contractors for security reasons, it would certainly more expensive, but would we have to reinstate the draft to do it?

they used American supplied weapons?