US weapons worth millions of dollars kept by the Afghan Taliban – Prensa Latina

An article in The Hill highlighted that Black Hawk helicopters, A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft and M16 rifles, among other military equipment and supplies, fell into the hands of the Taliban after taking control of the country last Sunday.

The newspaper pointed out that the United States has spent $83 billion on training and equipping Afghan security forces since the invasion in 2001 under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Between 2003 and 2016, Washington transferred 75,898 vehicles, 599,690 weapons, 162,643 communications equipment, 208 aircraft, and 16,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment to Afghan forces, according to a report from the bureau. Government Accountability for 2017.

He added that from 2017 to 2019, the Central Asian country delivered 7,035 machine guns, more than 20,000 grenades, about 2,500 grenades and about 1,300 grenade launchers among other equipment, according to a report by the Inspector General for Reconstruction. Afghanistan.

Even during the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Hill said, the White House continued to provide aircraft to the Afghans, and last July announced plans to send 35 Black Hawk helicopters and three A-29s.

It is unclear exactly how many weapons fell into the hands of the Taliban, but Joe Biden’s government admitted it was a “good amount”.

It’s actually a good amount (of that equipment and weapons) and obviously, we don’t have a feeling that they (the Taliban) are going to hand it over to us so easily at the (Kabul) airport, the National Security Adviser in the House of Representatives said Tuesday, Blanca, Jake Sullivan, when referring to the subject.

The United States justified its war adventure in 2001 to destroy the Taliban, but it failed, because after 20 years it regained its strength in that country, analysts comment.

President Biden, upon endorsing his decision to withdraw troops from the Central Asian region, expressed that Afghanistan should be able to defend itself from now on.

However, the collapse of the government and the return of the Taliban, which the Democratic president considered “highly unlikely” a month ago, happened in the blink of an eye, without opposition from the same US-trained forces.

What a disaster! Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore mourned the deaths of Americans in those two decades in yet another lost war.

mgt / dfm