[Wash Examiner] Lawmakers themselves couldn't seem to believe that Friday's House Armed Services hearing on waste in Afghanistan involved discussing a herd of Italian goats.Not really that bad an idea. Afghans raise and export goats. It probably would have helped a lot to provide vet services to make sure the breeding herd was healthy.
"This is the kind of stuff that belongs on 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,' not as a subject of a congressional hearing," said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing, referencing a satirical news show on HBO.
The Pentagon spent $6.1 million shipping Italian male goats to Afghanistan to mate with female Afghan goats to make cashmere as one of several initiatives to boost the Afghan economy after the war.
It does sound pretty pricey for goats. Just doing a quick search, billies were going for a couple hundred dollars for average weight 95 pounds in Iowa last month. That's an awful lot of shipping and handling. It probably would have been cheaper to air freight them from Iowa. I think I'd like to see some itemized receipts on that project.
But many of the female goats were infected with a disease that could have wiped out the whole herd, Speier said. As a result, only two of "those fancy Italian goats" are still usable, she said.
So the Afghan goats gave the Italian goats a dose of clap. [Rolls eyes]
| I heard something about a similar story a while back. But in that story the locals ate the pricey studs. |