After South Carolina's Columbia Police Department received its very own MRAP worth $658,000, its SWAT Commander Captain E.M. Marsh noted that 500 similar vehicles had been distributed to law enforcement organizations across the country.
Though terrorists are likely to have fled in advance of the strikes, one senior military official said the camps had buildings and equipment worth destroying and military commanders chose a tactic intended to create widespread devastation.
Late last year the US government set a cap of $30m worth of equipment that commanders can leave behind at each facility – a 15-fold increase from when guidelines were first written five years ago.
"Justice will not result from a military commission that cannot try U.S. citizens and treats a Canadian as worth less than an American," Commander Kuebler said.
Others are worthless, like United Nations vehicle documents -- part of a cache of papers that one midlevel Afghan commander insisted was worth $200,000.
The following month, however, he was informed by his commanding officer that he would be not be used as a paratrooper, and would not be going on patrol again, as he was, in the commander's words, "not worth it".
After five years of fighting and dying, American commanders decided the valley wasn't worth the fight.
They have at their disposal a slush fund, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, known as the Commander's Emergency Response Programme (CERP).
Army commanders, who had contracted for 44 systems worth $430 million over five years to United Industrial, wanted answers.
"It's like the saying goes: A picture is worth 1,000 words," said Lt. Col. Kevin D. Hendricks, a battalion commander involved in the recent exercise.
Coalition commanders have calculated that such skirmishes are a price worth paying for arriving on Mr Hussein's Baghdad doorstep swiftly.
