Gitmo Features $249,000 Volleyball Court, $296,000 Go-Kart Track, And Other Funsies

Jillian Bandes | June 07, 2010 8:57 AM

How do you even make a $249,000 volleyball court? The Washington Post has found a list of indulgences at Gitmo that the U.S. would simply abandon, if we pulled out of the camp. Granted, all of those indulgences are allegedly for the American personnel who are stationed there for extended periods of time.

But how do you justify spending $188,000 on a marquee?

The Pentagon also spent $683,000 to renovate a cafe that sells ice cream and Starbucks coffee, and $773,000 to remodel a cinder-block building to house a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant.

The spending is part of at least $500 million that has transformed what was once a sun-beaten and forgotten Caribbean base into one of the most secure military and prison installations in the world. That does not include construction bonuses, which typically run into the millions.

The Washington Post said the yearly operating cost of the place is about $150 million, putting the total cost of the camp at $2 billion.

I'm a big fan of a big military. But you can't go around building up that military without any regard whatsoever to the cost of doing business. There's got to be a better way to manage this stuff.