There’s an old English saying “Where there’s muck there’s brass”

What it means, in a modern Iraqi context is, the huge amounts of junk the U.S. military is giving or throwing away as it prepares to leave the country is worth something to many Iraqis.

We sent our Iraqi cameraman along to a Yard sale near Ramadi in central Iraq to film one of them for us.

Some parts of Iraq are still too dangerous for foreigners to visit.

And some of the customers at the yard sale were very anti-American.

One spoke on camera to say, “This is a political issue, everything here, a spanner, a needle, a tank has been bought with Iraqi oil money”

I imagine the hard-pressed U.S. taxpayer wished it were so rather than, in fact, costing the States a huge amount in treasure.

But it does raise the larger question of why so much is being left behind?

At these yard sales there is a huge variety of things for sale from piles of copy machines to even a military toilet block.

Our cameraman was told the communal latrine would likely be turned into a home for a newly wed couple that couldn’t afford to build a house.

The price tag around $5,000.

I went along to the sprawling Camp Victory adjoining Baghdad International Airport to find out from the U.S. military why so much equipment was being left behind.

First of all they wanted to make clear the vast majority of their military equipment is being shipped back to the States or onto Afghanistan for the troops there.

But many of these bases have been here for seven years and they simply aren’t going to cart off everything, as it would be too costly.

The rules at the moment are that a Commander of a large base can leave as much as $30 million in equipment.

Most of that, it seems, are housing (and toilet) units as well the concrete T-Walls that protect the base.

But, of course, I was told a lot more is left behind or given away- anything from refrigerators to wide screen televisions.

I know what you are thinking why give away a good TV?

Well, firstly, 240 volts power the TV’s in Iraq so they wouldn’t work in the States, and secondly soldiers don’t have the means to ship them back so they often pass them on to people who have helped them such as Iraqi translators.

And some of these presents get sold on to the yard sales.

But there is still a lot of stuff, which shouldn’t be getting into the yard sales.

The Iraqi military can request a base be left, as it is once all the valuable equipment is sent back.

There are reports, though, of smaller bases being stripped once the U.S. military depart.

As Captain Christopher Ophardt of 4th Stryker Brigade told me “we’ve heard the same reports; in the back of our minds its always there”

And there is, it seems, a market for just about anything including those ugly T walls, which surround every U.S., base here.

They cost a fortune. Some cost thousands of dollars each. But the cost would be extortionate to ship them back to the States and there is, of course, little use for them there.

One young Kurdish entrepreneur, I’m reliably told, is selling them on to Iraqi communities in Northern Iraq who currently face attacks by the terrorists.

So at least some of what’s being left behind is going to a good home.