RIGHT SPEAK: U.S. Bases That Housed Afghan Refugees Told They Had to Pay the Bill; Military Bases That Housed Afghan Refugees Spending $260 Million to Repair Damage, When You Add in Oversees Bases the Total is $535 Million

U.S. bases that housed Afghan refugees told they had to pay the bill:

Eight military bases that housed nearly 45,000 Afghan refugees around the United States incurred more than $250,000 million in damages that rendered some buildings uninhabitable.

A Texas Republican congressman whose district includes Fort Bliss, one of the bases that housed refugees through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) in 2021, now wants to know why the El Paso installation and the other seven bases are expected to pick up the tab.

“I am alarmed by how these bases will be required to cover the costs of these damages because of their efforts to support Afghan evacuees,” Rep. Tony Gonzales wrote in a letter this week to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and other Pentagon officials.

“These entities are responsible for paying $103.1 million from their own budgets to cover damages caused by OAW, such as replenishing depleted stocks of medical equipment, repairing defective infrastructure, refilling the supply of consumable goods, and restoring basic facility items,” Mr. Gonzales wrote.

Fort Bliss and the other bases were left “completely depleted” by the flood of Afghan refugees, the congressman wrote, citing a recent report by the Defense Department’s inspector general, which said base officials were told they had to cover the cost of the damages. --->READ MORE HERE

Dylan Bailey/U.S. Army

Military Bases that Housed Afghan Refugees Spending $260 Million to Repair Damage:

Eight military bases across the country will spend almost $260 million to repair damages caused by the tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees that the installations housed after American forces withdrew from Afghanistan.

The bases, which are in Texas, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Indiana, Virginia and New Mexico, were left with broken and vandalized furniture, depleted supplies, clogged water supply systems and other damages from providing temporary homes for the more than 120,000 refugees evacuated from Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

A report published last month found some of the damage to base buildings and barracks forced training exercises to be moved elsewhere and negatively impacted readiness.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, asked the Defense Department this week to provide a timeline for the repairs and how the costs could shortchange other priorities. He also said he was alarmed some bases were denied reimbursement repair costs because they had started fixing damages before a restoration directive from the Pentagon was in place.

“The efforts of these military bases to sustain their full operational capacity by making immediate repairs to damages caused by [Operation Allies Welcome] should not be cause for punishment because of the department’s procrastination in issuing restoration directives,” Gonzales wrote in a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and other officials. “While our military continues to feel the strains caused by the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is essential that all affected entities are returned to their full operational capacity as soon as possible.” --->READ MORE HERE

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+++++Afghan refugees cost U.S. military bases over $535 million+++++

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