Dog Pile: I Paid $37M for THIS POS?

As you may know, I enjoy tracking what little the US spends on actual rebuilding in Afghanistan. It's been rather quiet lately. Since about 2001, I'd say.

But then today! Oh joy of joys! I was sorting through the unread news in my inbox. I'm ashamed to say this breaking event happened back in August. Sorry it's so late. But it's relevant, I swear! And I promise, nothing this big has been built in the past four months.

Afghan and Tajik leaders have inaugurated a new bridge linking their countries across River Panj.

I was so excited. But then I looked at the photo.

WTF, thought I. My tax dollars paid for this piece of shit? Greg Mortenson built a bridge in Pakistan for $10,000, what the fuck is going on here? Admittedly, it's not a very good photo. I decided to look for another. But Google kept giving me the same image. So I switched to Yahoo, knowing someone had to have a private picture that was better than the BBC's. And they did!

Again, I was confused. Two bridges? That's not what I saw in the BBC photo. I looked again. There are two bridges! Then I found another photo on the flickr site.

A pic of the temporary bridge and early construction

Aha! Problem solved. Clearly the BBC used a photo including the temporary bridge. See? The same pile of dirt is in both, off to the lower left-hand side there. One final photo put everything in place.

Whew! There's a bridge that looks like it's about ... well, $4 million at least. I feel so much better. Except, what the hell? How come the BBC couldn't get a better angle of the bridge? I did it in 3.5 seconds. Or at least put an explanation on the caption.

Which has me reexamining the article.

The $37m (£18.4m) project, a US gift, replaces an intermittent ferry service across the fast-flowing river.

Thanks to expatjim2000's photos I know it was the temporary bridge that replaced the ferry service. (and, btw, that water looks pretty lazy to me)

So, what was the gift? The kick ass $34 million dollar behemoth, or the not-so-pretty temporary bridge?

For Washington this is a showcase project, a proof that things can go right for Afghanistan and its neighbours, [BBC's Natalia Antelava] says.

Dude, you guys can't even get a nice photo for the showcase, I'm not exactly cheering in my seat here. And while a bridge is great news, I think there are bigger issues that need to be addressed.

These...

Insurgencies Spread in Afghanistan and Pakistan
NATO Allies Divided Over Growing Afghan Crisis
Afghanistan - The Next Disaster
Blast kills top Afghan official
Bush Ignores Afghan School Violence
Afghan MPs back blasphemy death
British plans to arm Afghan militias reignite tensions with US
Ten Die in Mistaken Afghan Firefight
Canadian Military Has Quit Turning Detainees Over to Afghans
US Afghan poppy drive a 'failure'
Afghan Civilians Were Killed Needlessly, Ex-Marine Testifies
Afghanistan appeals for food aid