Leer en Español
The “miscalculations” of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan are beginning to take their toll and are causing serious concerns worldwide. As the Taliban regime moves forward with its seizure of power, it also manages to boast of millions of US dollars worth of weapons and war vehicles.
Videos circulating on social media are a moral blow to the United States because without a solid evacuation plan it allowed the Taliban to parade American weaponry. The most troubling part of this is that now the main enemies will have access to “secret technology” of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Audiovisuals of Taliban fighters wielding American-made rifles and driving Humvees account for more than 20 years of weaponry provided to the Afghan Army that became available to Islamist fighters.
According to an estimate by the Canadian Forces University’s Department of Security and International Affairs, the Taliban may have captured close to one million pieces of military hardware.
Although it has been known for months that the military would abandon the war, it is unknown why the troops did not begin to dismantle the weapons, remove the technology and prevent the Taliban from taking control of the arsenal, which in addition to costing millions of dollars could become a dangerous boomerang for the United States.
In videos uploaded to social networks by the Taliban themselves, it can be seen how they seized at least two Black Hawk helicopters valued at 25 million dollars each.
David Grantham, an American war veteran who in 2006 served as a U.S. Air Force counterintelligence officer in Afghanistan, told El American that reports indicate the Taliban now have control of 2,000 armored vehicles and 40 aircraft, including drones and helicopters.
“I would say that we are looking at $10-$20 billion worth of useable weaponry left behind – that is based on reporting that by 2017 the U.S. had supplied $28 billion in weaponry” Grantham said.
The dark fate of American weapons
Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor, said they did not have a “complete picture of where every item of defense material has gone”, but admitted that certainly, “a significant amount has fallen into the hands of the Taliban.”
Security and intelligence specialists claim that the American arsenal is likely to be traded on the black market, especially since Afghanistan is one of the epicenters of arms trafficking in the world.
It is also said that American weapons will also end up in the hands of drug traffickers and organized crime.
Experts in the field cannot explain how it is possible that the United States did not anticipate what was going to happen and also trusted that all the equipment would be used by the Afghan government forces.
“Now, we (and others) will pay a high price because all this has fallen into the hands of the enemy,” predicted Columbia University professor of international affairs Robert Jervis, who pointed out that “the most dangerous thing” against the United States and its allies is that the weapons and equipment in the hands of the Taliban contain “secret technology.”
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo