The Patriot Post® · The Price of Leaving Afghanistan

The Washington Post reports: “As it intensifies its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military is being forced to fly massive amounts of gear and equipment out of the country instead of using cheaper overland and sea routes, according to Pentagon officials. Military logisticians would like to send home 60 percent of their equipment and vehicles by trucking them into Pakistan and then loading them onto ships – the least expensive method by far. But cargo is flowing out on that route at only one-third the planned rate, the officials said.”

Why fly supplies out? Afghanistan closed its border with Pakistan because the U.S. wouldn’t pay $70 million in customs fees for removing equipment. As Mark Steyn put it, “Well, the political class that’s spent a decade blathering about an ‘exit strategy’ apparently failed to anticipate an exit fee.”