"Iraqis find treasures in US military castoffs; Used goods are sold in markets across the nation" by Leila Fadel, Washington Post | June 13, 2010
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The remnants of the US occupation of Iraq are being sold to the highest bidders in yard sales across the country.
The outskirts of cities like Baghdad, Fallujah, and Ramadi — once bastions of the Sunni insurgency — are now destinations for bargain hunters interested in items such as generators and trailers. As the US military draws down to 50,000 troops by the end of the summer, the junk left behind is quickly becoming part of the Iraqi landscape....
Yeah, we BEAUTIFIED the place!
After all that the US occupation has taken from Iraq, Iraqi merchant Mohammed Issawi said, Iraqis deserve to get something back.
“These are our things,’’ he said. “They took these things from us, and now we are selling them back. They occupied our country by force.’’
No, we liberated it.
We destroyed and polluted it and killed millions but we liberated it.
Families buy $1,000 trailers once fashioned into sleeping quarters for soldiers and Marines.
I sure hope they didn't get them from FEMA.
Base latrines have become cheaper alternatives to traditional dwellings made of brick and concrete. Air-conditioner units and large generators that can stave off Iraq’s blistering summers are sold at half-price.
Merchants say they come across the goods in different ways. Some was found, some was stolen, and some was sold to them. Much of it, they say, was just given away.
At his auction outside Balad, north of Baghdad, Ahmed Adnan showed off a hodgepodge of merchandise. He sells blast walls to the provincial government in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province, where explosions remain a threat. Civilians can buy items such as iPods and laptops.
US officials worry that much of the tens of millions of dollars worth of US equipment being handed over to the Iraqi government is neglected or stolen....
I do not know what else to say, Americans.
You are being looted en masse as you suffer and starve.
The policy has sparked a debate at the Pentagon over whether it makes sense to leave so much behind, but officials say that in many cases, it would cost more to ship items out than to buy new ones elsewhere.
And CUI BONO, American$?
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