Getting Ready to Get Out

The Army has started to lay the groundwork for withdrawal from Afghanistan and said on Tuesday it plans to contract for twelve base closure assistance teams to manage the process.

Those teams -- in phraseology that bears only a passing resemblance to simple English -- will "assist in facilitating the retrograde process by coordinating the logistics and deconstruction of bases" in Afghanistan.

The contractor teams will help eight military withdrawal planning teams in Afghanistan, and the Army says it could boost the number of contractor teams to more than twelve if needed.

The lowest, priced "technically acceptable" bidders will be selected for the contract, the Army said. One wonders how the Army will develop criteria for base deconstruction, a rather rare activity.