U.S. Govermement Fights War with Toys
In this bizarre story from the Washington Post we get to learn of a program called The U.S. Commander’s Emergency Response Program, which uses money as a weapon. They’ve spent at least 2.8 billion dollars on reconstruction in Iraq. Sounds okay right? Well the controversial part is that the money is spent outside of, “international redevelopment protocols or government purchasing rules.” But who cares about that right? You’re just here to read about toys. On the list of things the money was used to purchased are these two gems:
- $500,000 on action figures made to look like Iraqi Security Forces.
- $100,000 worth of dolls.
Now these dolls and action figures are obviously for a greater effort to win over hearts and minds, but damn if that isn’t a weird use of war money. However, I do think that you could make a good argument that these kinds of things work. There are a lot of guys that joined the military that can say so because they admired G.I. Joe growing up. Perhaps a few kids will be influenced to like us and won’t want to strap bombs to themselves when they grow up.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:07 am
One is reminded of Dark Helmet’s playtime scene in Spaceballs.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I think in a weird way GI Joe had something to do with me joining the military. oooh psychological…
August 14th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
jumper, please tell me you drove the Bridge Layer or were stationed at Check Point Alpha.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Even better; I flew a trouble bubble!