Planes, guns, night-vision goggles: The Taliban's new U.S.-made war chest

Withdrawal plan, dumb. Agreed. Leaving weapons behind, not news.

The transport of large military equipment acquired over 20 years is not a good use of resources when all you have to do is take the ECU with you. You can't buy a drone ECU on ebay. Blackhawks aren't flown by pilots. They are flown by control boards reacting to pilot input. Take three pounds of avionics with you and the weapon system is useless. Anything not left in the hands of Afghans was easily disabled.

Any active, modern, systems the Taliban possesses were left with the Afghan forces. If you had read the article you would know the whole point of the exit strategy was to leave behind an armed Afghan force. We knew before hand that they wouldn't last out the year. Even under ideal conditions. So again, the fact that the Taliban has our weapons is not news. It would have happened under a smart withdrawal as well.

 

I was in the army. Secret level clearance in communications. In the back for of all our communications units was an axe.

I asked what that is for on my first day. "If you get over run, that's too ensure the enemy gets nothing of value. Light it on fire for good measure. Diesel works good." Was my captains response.

Apparently nobody in D.C. got the same lesson.

 

By the way.

Do you think the U.S. military has high tech weapon systems that aren't able to be located immediately by the U.S. military?

 

I’m very glad you were keeping personal inventory of every single military asset we provided the Afghans throughout 20 years such that an article detailing what Taliban obtained is not news to you.

That inventory you kept however is outdated since the Taliban was denied some assets by fleeing Afghans. I’d think you’d at least be interested in that, or did you know that through precognition?

 

we can hope, but early signs not looking good

 

"So what" is that many of the weapons given up by Joe Biden such as IED jammers, etc. will be reverse engineered by countries like Iran and China and then possibly be used to kill US soldiers or even someday take down a commercial airliner.

But your post demonstrates that even the most liberal person such as yourself apparently knows more about military science ("Warfare 101") than the draft dodging feeble and senile Joe Biden.

 

All's Fair in Love and War...
War is Hell...
Etc...

Obviously, Mistakes were made...

Hindsight is always 20/20 in Monday Morning QBs...
Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda/Mighta/Etc...

 

Since Biden's top military and intelligence advisors told him what would happen commentary on the disaster is hardly a matter of hindsight. Biden was given accurate foresight and ignored it.

 

No. You knew whom you were erecting into the White House, and you did not give a ****, so long as it was not Trump.

Every mistake happened since Jan. 21 is yours, and yours along, your bravado and third-class jokes making them so much more obvious.

I feel your pain.

 

So with Bidet, we are the losers....got it.

How strange for a gun banner to arm terrorist.

 

****ing elections ****ing counts

 

Senators "Horrified" To See Black Hawk Helicopters In Taliban Hands

"A quick rundown of the "billions of dollars" of US gear which went straight to Taliban hands..."

How it started


Now

 

that they do, never should have elected Trump or Bush Jr

 

Twas always going to happen once the US decided to pull out. Trump reached an accord with the Taliban on a phased withdrawal, Biden just implemented it. (And yes he did a very bad job of it). Point is though that this equipment was always going to stay in place with the Afghan defense forces once the US withdrew. And the only way to avoid the Government not falling over eventually was not to withdraw to begin with. It was going to take decades/a generation or two to build any kind of functioning modern State out of Afghanistan given the woeful levels of corruption and lack of civil expertise the place suffered from. Pull out before then? You'd still end up with what you see now. Albeit IMO the place could have held together for a few more years (3-5?) if the withdrawal had been done properly. The lack of ongoing air support was the real medium term killer, Afghanistan only had 30 light attack aircraft to provide air support for the entire country! Without constant US support and supervision and an ongoing civil war that was never going to be enough. Especially if the Afghan Government itself couldn't reach an agreement with the Taliban - which do date they hadn't.

The good news. Even with Iranian help (which is unlikely) the Taliban won't be able to keep the complex gear running for long , they won't have the spare parts or expertise to do so. So my best guess is that in a couple of years or so the Afghan air force will look like the Venezuelan one. And be about as effective.

 

Considering all the ****ups the current administration is responsible for and considering the record time they accomplished them in, your statement raises eyebrows at the very list.

Come on, man!

 

That's a Russian Mi-24.

 

Can't say with definition it was top of the line, near it, but I agree with the rest.

 

https://theprint.in/diplomacy/talib...kunduz-seizes-chopper-gifted-by-india/713364/

Look at that. It's India's.

 

Most of the high tech stuff can't be operated by goat herders. Most likely being sold to China, Russia, and Iran.

 

The future Taliban "White House"......

 

That's a very naive outlook. China reverse-engineers everything.

 

Sure, but looks like there is nothing there that hasn't been available for a long time. Small arms, humvees, APCs and some utility choppers.

 

Bomb-sniffing/disposal robots. Motion-sensor machine guns.
Military communications devices. Drones.

 

Snark all you want. It's still fake news. Fake news from the right is just as fake as fake news from the left.

The news is all OMG Taliban now has blackhawks and drones! Then they show us pictures of a 50 year old Russian helicopter design conspicuously missing one of the most difficult components to manufacture (the rotor blades). A brief investigation will expose the fact that it was gifted to the Afghan military by India.

The drones were provided as part of this program: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/world/asia/afghan-drone-program.html. The drones are not armed, hardly "advanced," 20 year old system, and we spent 174 million in failing to teach the Afghans how to effectively use them. At the same time, the Taliban had been using commercially available drones to film and carry out attacks for years prior.

The fake narrative is that Biden allowed these acquisitions and that somehow made Taliban forces more effective. It's not the case. At most the Taliban got a bunch of small arms that they were going to get no matter what withdrawal strategy was used.

 

And a few tanks, millions of dollars' worth of fleets of armored Humvees, A few attack helicopters, mortars, artillery, transportation helis.

"At most a bunch of small arms" my ass.