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.
CinnamonGirl wrote: I doubt very seriously that is the actual price. Sounds like propaganda. Not to say that they don't spend alot on AC.
CG I have to agree. Straight from someone that has been there, my son, who tells me that the once or twice he got to Balad in Iraq there was some AC, but up where he was no AC and the heaters work parttime. I do not believe and will not believe until I see hard proof that they spend that. Again there are folks out there that talk, without getting true facts, and then reporting on it.
When you have companies like KBR doing the installations, I can imagine there are times when a home unit that costs about $7K winds up being 50K by the time it makes it to Iraq.
Doesn't it seem like GI's never get to serve in nice weather areas? In Afghanistan, some of the fighting is taking place above 14,000 feet.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
As the article states, there are a lot of top commanders who aren't interested in "greening" any tents to help save energy. That attitude is typical of commanders...change is very difficult to make happen in the military environment...why fix something if it isn't broke? Very few commanders I worked under embraced change wholeheartedly and encouraged it amoung their troops.
Unless the change involved saving a lot of money...most commanders weren't interested in having their troops spend time just to see if it works.
