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| Afghanistan |
| Wreckage Removed From Kabul Airport |
| 2004-01-18 |
| Peacekeepers dragged away the wreckage of a Soviet-era plane on Saturday in an effort to cleanup Kabul’s battle-scarred airport and encourage more commercial air traffic. Two years after the fall of the Taliban, the view from the runway presents arriving passengers with a sobering summary of Afghanistan’s brutal history. The rusting hulks of planes destroyed by U.S. bombs in the assault that toppled the Islamic hardline regime in late 2001 are mixed with those from earlier wars. To help in the cleanup, German soldiers used a bulldozer and two cranes on Saturday to haul the crumpled carcass of an Antonov cargo plane from a patch of grass next to a main taxiway to an area known as "the graveyard" - already littered with dozens of destroyed planes and helicopters. "Dieter! Get that bulldozer over there and move that wrecked Antonov off the taxiway!" "But sir, that’s a brand new Russian plane!" "Like I was saying, get that wreck outta there!" "If we want to go into the future we need to remove the signs of 23 years of war," German Gen. Andris Freutel told reporters watching the removal work, as one of the Afghan national airline’s few jets roared off toward Dubai. Troops from the 5,500-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force have already removed dozens of wrecks, but the airport is still littered with rusting fuselages, burnt-out tanks and troop carriers. The area around the airport, which lies in the north of the city with a clear view of the snowy Hindu Kush mountains, also remains heavily mined. Red flags flutter around the sections where mine clearers are working painstakingly to remove them. The de-mining is due to be completed in about a year. "Welcome to Kabul International Airport. For your safety, no smoking is allowed inside the terminal, and please watch where you step." |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 That thought passed through my mind this morning.With all the destroyed Soviet equipment lying around,heck think of all the brass,copper,and aluminum in the radiators.Probably do well in Iraq,too. Hydro-electric would be the way to go,don't think there are big rivers in Afganistan.But the volume of H2O is not as important as the distance of fall(hieght of the water column). |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-1-18 5:57:20 PM |
| #4 Actually, it's not a bad idea, but instead of gas, use electricity. There's enough potential for hydroelectric power (and a few existing dams) to not only meet the modest needs of the nation, but to also use to smelt down war debris into constituent parts. It wouldn't make anyone filthy rich (unless they got the Pak contract, as well), but it would be a rather substantial boost to the local economy. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-1-18 12:28:42 PM |
| #3 If the economic development guys are looking for ideas... build a smelter for war debris. Afghanistan could be the regions greatest producer of raw steel and aluminum ingots. Only problem is finding enough dung to fire the furnaces. But,if need be, natural gas could be brought in from the north. Just kidding. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-1-18 12:26:13 PM |
| #2 Do they ever leave Kabul I don't think the agreement under which they're deployed allows them to yet, although both the Germans and NATO are working to get them up into the north, near Mazar-e-sharif. I remember reading somewhere that there are as many as 60,000 mines in and around the airfield. That's a lot of mines to get rid of! A year may not be enough time. On another note, I think a scrap-iron concession in Afghanistan would be a fantastic investment... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-1-18 12:18:57 PM |
| #1 nice to see the Germans keeping themselves real busy with such dangerous and hostile work.do they ever leave kabul and go huntin for the bearded fuck wits in the hills? |
| Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-1-18 4:59:16 AM |