The Washington Post’s Ernest Londono has a really interesting piece on war resources: as it draws down from Iraq, the U.S. military is giving equipment like passenger vehicles to the Iraq government. Some military officials in Afghanistan are upset about this, saying they could use the equipment. When labor and transportation costs are factored in, though, it might be easier to just give soldiers in Afghanistan new equipment. On the other hand: donated Iraq equipment is susceptible to looting.

That equipment costs gets to the BIG point that the Afghanistan War is a war that is something less than essential to wage. If Afghanistan escalation were a national security imperative, Iraq military officials would go out of their way to ship needed equipment to the Afghanistan theater. Congress would pass an emergency spending bill to pay for equipment that couldn’t be transferred. Instead, the bickering over equipment is another “cost of war” issue that leaves the lingering question, “Is this really worth it?”

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