Which weapons have the Americans left behind in Afghanistan? What are they worth? How big of an amount is it in the world of defense expenditure? What are the security implications of this for the rest of the world?
The fall of Kabul on 15th August, 2021 and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops on the 31st of August, 2021 marked the end of a two decades long war. It resulted in the victory of the Taliban and the defeat of the N.A.T.O. powers (U.S.A. and U.K.) The hasty troop withdrawal by the Biden Administration has left the Afghan people at the mercy of the Taliban. Apart from the destiny and future of the Afghan people, the White House has left behind military hardware
worth billions of dollars in the hands of a radical Islamic terror organization.
So which weapons have been left behind by the U.S. Military and what is the worth of these weapons?
Former U.S. President(P.O.T.U.S.), Donald Trump in a statement said and I quote "Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. In addition to the obvious, ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost." He added, "If it is not handed back, we should either go
in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it. Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!"
A tweet made by his eldest Donald Trump Jr. read , "For perspective... $85,000,000,000 worth of military money being left to Taliban Terrorists means that each and every man, woman, and child in America contributed about $265 to their terrorist cause assuming +/-320 mil citizens. Well done Democrats!" He noted that US was leaving behind 22,174 humvees, 8,000 trucks, 634 MIII7, 1,62,043 radios, 155 MxxPro mine-proof vehicles, 16,035-night vision goggles/devices, 169 armoured personnel carriers, 358,530 assault rifles, 42,000 trucks and SUVs, 126,295 pistols, 64,363 machine guns, 176 artillery pieces, 33 Mi-17 and as many UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, four C-130 transporters, 23 Embraer EMB 314/A29 Super Tucano, 43 MD530 choppers, 28 Cessna 208, and 10 Cessna AC-208 planes.
The White House finally acknowledged that US military equipment has fallen into the hands of Taliban forces when current U.S. National Security Advisor(N.S.A.) Jake Sullivan issued a statement to the press stating, "We don't have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone. But certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban." "And obviously, we don't have a sense that they are readily going to hand it over to us at the airport," he added.
Now assuming that the figure of 85 billion dollars is accurate, it would beg the question, "How big of an amount is it really in terms of defense expenditure?"
1. If 85 billion dollars was the defense budget of a nation it would be the
third largest defense budget in the world, behind only China and the U.S.A.
2. India's own defense budget for the year 2021 is approximately 65
billion dollars out of which only about $18.48 billion is used for arms procurement.
3. Developed countries like U.K., France, Germany, South Korea, Russia,
Japan etc. have defense budgets much lower than 85 billion dollars.
4. 85 billion dollars is roughly 4 times of the defense budget of Israel
and approximately 5 times the defense budgets of countries like Iran, Spain and
Turkey.
Now, what are the security implications of the seizure of U.S. weapons by the Taliban for India, Afghanistan and the rest of the world?
1. The weapons left behind by the United States are some of the finest in the world. These same weapons will now be used by the Taliban for oppressing the
Afghan people and imposing the Shariah Law which would make life
miserable for the men, children and especially the women of Afghanistan.
2. Countries like China and Pakistan will get access to state of the
art American technologies and weapon systems:
a) Pakistan: It is no secret that the Pakistan Armed Forces and
administration have been long standing supporters of the Taliban and
other radical Islamic terror organizations.
Hence, the possibility of these weapons falling into the hands of terrorists is
an almost certainty. Let us observe the statements coming out of Pakistan
since the Fall Of Kabul. The Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan endorsed
the Taliban takeover while addressing a ceremony launching the first phase
of the single national curriculum across schools in Pakistan saying," You
take over the other culture and become psychologically subservient. When
that happens please remember, it is worse than actual slavery. It is harder to
throw off the chains of cultural enslavement. What is happening in
Afghanistan now, they have broken the shackles of slavery." Neelam Irshad
Sheikh, a leader of Imran Khan's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
government has said that the Taliban would help the country in 'liberating'
Kashmir from India. Speaking at a television news debate, PTI leader
Neelam Irshad Sheikh said, “Taliban have said that they are with us and they
will help us in [liberating] Kashmir.” The same Imran Khan who calls
Osama Bin Laden a ‘martyr' in the very Parliament of Pakistan and openly
admits having about 30000-40000 armed terrorists in his country while
visiting the United States would surely not think twice before providing
such weapons to U.N. designated terror groups operating in Pakistan.
Pakistan based 'fidayeens' being armed with some of the best weapons in the
world is obviously a massive security threat to India, Afghanistan and the
rest of the world.
b) China: China on the other hand is a perpetual bully, its lust for land knows no bounds. Some of the best weapons in the arsenal of the U.S. military now lie
on a platter in front of the ‘Dragon’. China will not just be able to use these
weapons but also reverse-manufacture them and make as many replicas of
them as it wants. China has land borders with 14 countries but disputes with
18 countries, such is the level of Chinese expansionism. The countries with
which China has disputes are Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Philippines,
Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Vietnam etc. The
list is long but it makes a very short point. A country like China having access to such world class military equipment is not just bad news for these 18 countries but for Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang, the pro democracy activists of Hong Kong
and the rest of China and for the Tibetans who are living under illegal Chinese occupation for about 70 years.
3. In case any country wishes to intervene militarily in Afghanistan
to protect the Afghans from the oppression and tyranny of the
Taliban, the Taliban will be able to resist their forces as they have
no shortage of military equipment. This means that the Afghans
have no option but to live under the brutal regime of the Taliban.
The situation in Afghanistan is indeed very worrisome and there is no doubt that the U.S. has brought this up on itself and the rest of the world. According to the US Department of Defense, the total military expenditure in Afghanistan (from October 2001 until December 2020) was $825bn, with about another $130bn spent on reconstruction projects. Even after incurring such heavy expenditure on Afghanistan along with 20 years of bloodshed the Americans have nothing to show for themselves. The Biden Administration's Himalayan miscalculation will have massive repercussions for the rest of the world. One probing question that is raised with such a massive foreign policy and military blunder by the
Americans is that, ”Are we seeing the beginning of the decline of the United States of America?”
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