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."
Moreover, the design was purchased despite the fact that several adequate options were available at no cost to the militaries, the watchdog found.
