In the wake of President Joe Biden’s horrific Afghanistan withdrawal, American-made weapons that were abandoned by the Afghan National Security Forces were seized by the Taliban.
This was an $83 billion investment, according to The New York Times, flushed down the toilet because the Biden administration sloppily executed the removal of our troops from the fragile nation.
We trained and trusted the Afghan military to hold the line against the Taliban, which turned out to be a huge mistake.
Those weapons, which could be seen as American secrets in physical form, are now ending up in Afghan gun stores, according to a recent report from the Times.
Weapons dealers in southern Afghanistan told the paper that dealers have been paying off Taliban fighters for the equipment in order to resell it for their own businesses.
In Kandahar, it has now become a lucrative business for Afghans to sell these the matériel, which includes everything from guns to binoculars.
While some of these dealers are selling in the nation, others are reportedly smuggling them to Pakistan as well.
The Pentagon has conceded that American weapons still remained in the country after the bloody end of U.S. involvement in August but said that aircraft had been disabled.
“Since 2005, the U.S. military has provided the Afghan national defense and security forces with many thousands of small arms, ranging from pistols to medium machine guns,” Defense Department spokesman Maj. Rob Lodewick told the Times.
Some in the Taliban, however, vehemently deny that they are selling these weapons in the marketplace.
“I totally deny this; our fighters cannot be that careless,” Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told the paper, despite others in the terrorist regime admitting that they are being sold.
“Even a single person cannot sell a bullet in the market or smuggle it.”
The dealers’ customers base was described by the Times as “entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens,” which is presumably not a bad thing.
There are likely thousands of Afghans looking for tools to fight back against the Taliban or defend themselves against other injustices in their communities.
On the flip side, these weapons being out for sale could mean that they get into the hands of extremists (again), which could ultimately bring harm to innocent civilians.
“American-made weapons are in great demand, as they work very well and people know how to use them,” an anonymous merchant told the Times.
Regardless of who will be owning these weapons, it is embarrassing for the United States to have taxpayer-funded equipment become this vulnerable.