Los Angeles Times: Afghans Selling All They Can Sell

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-000014489feb25.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dworld

THE WORLD
Afghans Selling All They Can Sell
Asia: U.S. Army gear airdropped for opposition soldiers is now for
sale--cheap--at Mazar-i-Sharif's bazaar.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
TIMES STAFF WRITER

February 25 2002

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan -- The best bargain in the bazaar here is not the
gold-spotted lapis lazuli beads, the wolf skin cap or the Ahmed Shah Masoud
commemorative rug.

It's the GI sleeping bag.

Or the Gore-Tex cammies. Or the size 12 combat boots, limousines for most Afghan
feet and sold at a "special price" because so few people here can wear them.

In early October, as America ramped up to wage war against the
terrorist-supporting Taliban regime, Air Force jets zoomed over remote Afghan
villages, dropping guns, ammunition, combat fatigues--"cammies" in
Army-speak--and other supplies to Northern Alliance soldiers.

Since then, Mazar-i-Sharif's markets have been looking a bit like Army surplus
stores.

Many Northern Alliance soldiers, who typically go weeks without a paycheck, have
chosen to sell their new gear instead of use it. Poor villagers have tromped
into the city lugging sacks of recovered materiel to cash in on the gifts from
the sky.

The items cost a fraction of what they do in the United States--or what it took
to fly them halfway around the world.

Take the U.S. Special Forces sleeping bag, a high-quality worm-shaped black
polyester tube that retails in America for $160. Here, the going price is about
13 bucks.

Black leather combat boots run about $6.90, unless they're over size 10. Then
they're half off.

Need an Army-green waterproof backpack? Many foreign journalists did, picking
them up for the equivalent of $3, compared with $35 back home.

The deals are so good that the stuff is getting snapped up by real
soldiers--Jordanian troops, French paratroopers, even U.S. officers.

-- continued --

"Heck, if I lose my sleeping bag, I'll have a backup," said Army Maj. Martin
Rose, who's stationed in Mazar-i-Sharif.

U.S. commanders insist that most airdrops reached their targets.

"There's no way to quantify it, but we're confident the majority of shipments
got to our guys," said the U.S. Central Command's Col. Rick Thomas.

Some shipments were intended for small contingents of Special Forces soldiers
who were traveling light in the war's early days and needed to be resupplied by
air. The deliveries stopped in mid-December, when the Taliban fell.

U.S. military officials say they're unable to measure how many military-related
supplies were unloaded, though figures are available for humanitarian aid: 3.4
million pounds of wheat, 2.5 million daily rations and 328,000 blankets.

A lot of that went to the market too, with blankets and daily rations big
sellers this fall.

Most Northern Alliance soldiers in Mazar-i-Sharif still stroll around in faded
camouflage and old Soviet belt buckles with the hammer and sickle scratched off.

It's the higher-ranking commanders who are outfitted in smart American-made
fatigues.

"Now I'm just like Green Beret," said ethnic Uzbek Gen. Abdul Hak Sakra, tugging
the lapels of his crisp new Gore-Tex field jacket.

Ata Mohammed, an ethnic Tajik commander and former protege of Masoud, the
anti-Taliban leader assassinated in September, even secured a set of fatigues
for his 7-year-old son, Khalid.

"A gift for my little commander," he said, rubbing the boy's head during a
recent interview.

These days, the best place to find new gear is at the southwestern corner of the
blue mosque, a stunning, intricately decorated bright blue dome in the center of
town.

On Saturday, sleeping bag seller Mohammed Dullah paced the sidewalk, shouting
"Bista sefari! Bista sefari!" which literally means "traveling bed."

A woman beneath a diaphanous white burka approached him, inspected the quilted
bag, asked the price and then hurried away.

Even at below cost, the surplus gear is still too expensive for most Afghans,
and vendors are often left waiting for aid workers, journalists or foreign
soldiers to buy their wares.

"It's like hunting," Dullah said. "Some days you get so many. Other days you get
none."

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to
www.lats.com/rights.

Thank your fellow warlords. Hehe

i am thinking its time to make an overseas trip.

Welllllll, atleast the stuff is ending up in the hands of our guys in the end anyway!  Sucks that these rags make a penny off of it, but I doubt the couple dollars spent will break any of our guys for a backup or whatnot.