For the past decade, the Pentagon has authorized an apparently unsuitable uniform choice for Afghan soldiers, one that has cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $28 million, a U.S. government watchdog on Afghanistan said Wednesday.
The questionable uniform features a woodland camouflage pattern that "may be inappropriate," given that just two percent of the nation is forested, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a 17-page report.
Timothy O'Neill, a camouflage consultant and retired longtime Army officer, notes in the report that "desert designs don't work well in woodland areas and woodland patterns perform poorly in the desert."
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Moreover, the design was purchased despite the fact that several adequate options were available at no cost to the militaries, the watchdog found.