Opinion Complete and utter disgrace.....

[surrealworlds]

But WHY was that much equipment left to the Taliban? That's the question everyone is dancing around. We could have brought it all home, but didn't, we could have destroyed it so the Taliban couldn't have it, but didn't. We specifically gifted the Taliban BILLIONS of dollars worth of military equipment.

We didn't leave it for the Taliban. We left all that equipment for the Afghan Army. Which is kind of the same but on paper not.
The Afghan Army turned tail and left it for the Taliban.

 

[RogerB08]

Everyone wants to get out, but when getting out is messy the finger pointing and armchair quarterbacking begins. As though there's any way to withdraw cleanly from a war that hasn't been a war that never really ended. Our country tried for 20 years to do the right thing for Afghanistan; It took Joe Biden to finally do the right thing for our country.

 

[Rational Poster]

I don't understand servicemen and women crying over this. What did you think we were doing over there?
We lost? Lost what? What would you consider a win? How do you win war?

We literally walked into a country and owned it border to border for 20 YEARS. Lost? We chose to quit after two decades. Call it a loss if you want but I tend to disagree. There are no winners in war.

A success would definitely be a peaceful and seamless transition from military occupation to a friendly, secular government.

 

[HockeyBjj]

I've heard 85 billion

85 billion included the costs of training and salaries paid to the useless Afghan army

Equipment estimated at 24 Billion, but much of that has either been not maintained properly by said useless Afghan army, and some had been smartly sabotaged by the US army on its way out. Unfortunately not nearly all of it.

Still a complete and royal fuckup. It’s just better to use non-exaggerated numbers of the equipment left behind so that it can’t be waived away as not true like the 85billion dollar number is

 

[dirtypablo]

Why would we do that? It seems inconceivable to me that we would just leave that much military equipment sitting on the ground and drive away. At the LEAST we could have destroyed most of it before we left if it was deemed too costly to move back to the U.S. I'm just trying to figure out what the thinking is here. Its not like we left a few rifles and jeeps behind, we left Black Hawk Helicopters and C-130 transports, among many other things.

We? There is no 'we' here. They left the stuff behind, because you will pay for new stuff. Why would the government give a shit about wasting your money, when it gives them an excuse to spend more of it?


I had really hoped covid would open people's eyes to how much of a scam the MIC is (clear demonstration the US is completely unprepared for any form of bio warfare despite the roughly 15 trillion in military spending the last two decades), but maybe this will be what does it. I doubt it though.

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

Everyone wants to get out, but when getting out is messy the finger pointing and armchair quarterbacking begins. As though there's any way to withdraw cleanly from a war that hasn't been a war that never really ended. Our country tried for 20 years to do the right thing for Afghanistan; It took Joe Biden to finally do the right thing for our country.

Rest easy...everyone gives old joe complete and full credit for this.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

My guess is the equipment that was left was for the Afghan army to use but they rolled so fast no one was prepared for it. Most of our troops were pulled earlier in the year so maybe there wasn't enough people on the ground to do anything about it.

 

[dirtypablo]

I will say I'm loving the outrage from all the idiots in the military and those that support the military.

The old Henry Kissinger quote seems appropriate - "Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." Hilarious to me when military folks realize this (or even more hilarious is that many of them don't realize this, and think a republican leader actually cares about them and would have done things with them in mind). <45>

 

[flashNsmash]

looks like a civilian ch-46 phrog

 

[djacobox372]

It's foolish to think you can fight a soft war.... the enemy must be brought to the point where they are BEGGING to unconditionally surrender, you cannot "hold back" before that point. Sometimes this means complete destruction of a region and it's people--if you aren't willing to go that far, don't go to war.

If you are going to do a "police action" you get in and get out, like Regan or Bush Sr. did.

 

[RogerB08]

Rest easy...everyone gives old joe complete and full credit for this.

Of course if Trump was in office you'd be blaming it on antifa or Hillary, or satanic pedophiles.

 

[KnightTemplar]

If you didn’t want to leave any equipment for the Taliban you’d have to spend an extra few years running around repo’ing everything from the Afghan army. They probably would have just taken their gear and defected. Everything that was theirs was guaranteed end up with the Taliban one way or another.

Reminds me of the scene in Full Metal Jacket, where Cowboy is trying to bargain with the Vietnamese pimp,

"Be glad to trade you some ARVN rifles; they ain't never been fired and only dropped once"

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

Of course if Trump was in office you'd be blaming it on antifa or Hillary, or satanic pedophiles.

smooth brain logic

 

[TryggeTryggvar]

More than anything this seems like a massive failure of american intelligence operations combined with shit poor leadership.

Usa have been there for 20 years, they had to know what was going to happen when they pulled out. And still we end up with this shitshow.

 

[White Whale]

It's foolish to think you can fight a soft war.... the enemy must be brought to the point where they are BEGGING to unconditionally surrender, you cannot "hold back" before that point. Sometimes this means complete destruction of a region and it's people--if you aren't willing to go that far, don't go to war.

If you are going to do a "police action" you get in and get out, like Regan or Bush Sr. did.

This is why Japan was nuked in WW2. It was to force them to surrender.

 

[KnightTemplar]

This is why Japan was nuked in WW2. It was to force them to surrender.

Nuking Afghanistan was seriously considered in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but was eventually taken off the table by Bush himself.

 

[RogerB08]

smooth brain logic

You spelled "entirely accurate assessment" wrong.

 

[Scerpi]

We outfitted the ANA who abandoned their equipment.

Majority of that stuff is completely useless without the proper maintenance and access to spare parts after a very short period, and of course, trained operators.

Who the fuck cares... It's not like the Taliban can't sell it to other parties who'd love to get their hands on US Tech.... Like China

 

[Rational Poster]

Who the fuck cares... It's not like the Taliban can't sell it to other parties who'd love to get their hands on US Tech.... Like China

Why would China want to buy old and used military equipment when they make their own?

 

[HereticBD]

I love this idea that people are up in arms that we left the Afghans X amount of equipment that they will somehow be able to use on a long term basis. They won’t be able to maintain or get parts for the equipment they have. It’s like giving a poor person a Ferrari. They might drive it for a few months but at some point the fuel and upkeep will be impossible to keep up.

We will find out at some point it was more expensive to bring the equipment back but the people bitching don’t care.

Now what could a terrorist organization possibly do with equipment worth billions, other than use it? Hmmm.....