Loss and Profit Balance Sheet in Conflict

"I totally deny this; our fighters cannot be that careless."

"Even a single person cannot sell a bullet in the market or smuggle it."

"[American-made weapons previously captured during the war] are all listed, verified and are all saved and secure under the Islamic Emirate for the future army."

Bilal Karimi, Taliban spokesman

 

"The first choice is American-made [arms], even though it is a little more expensive." 

"Light weapons such as guns and pistols are in great demand, as they are easy to transport and carry."

Unnamed (name withheld on request) Kandahar gun merchant

 

"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."

“We recognize that large numbers of these weapons are probably now in Taliban hands."

Maj. Rob Lodewick, U.S. Defense Department spokesman

 

"We used to work as a mobile team. We would meet many government soldiers and officers to buy weapons from them."

"After that we would take those weapons to the Taliban and sell it to them, or to anyone who would give us a good price."

Esmatullah, gun merchant, Kandahar Province

Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

 

Flight or fight: in the chaos and confusion of a hasty, ill-planned departure without prior plans by the American administration, much less the U.S. military, to gather up and fly sophisticated high-tech military equipment out of Afghanistan, orders were given to departing troops to disable some helicopters and airplanes, but by no means were all left useless. Equipment that was left at the abandoned military terminals, ostensibly meant for the benefit of the Republic of Afghanistan's military use, was speedily looted by the Taliban and others taking advantage of the fact that the Afghan military were not notified prior to the stealthy night-time evacuation of the U.S. bases.

And then, of course, there is the vast military equipment in planes and military vehicles supplied courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer at an estimated value of a staggering $83 billion over twenty years of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan while the Afghan military and national police were being trained by U.S. conflict experts, switching from the hands of the Afghan military to the possession of the triumphant Taliban as they saw government and military resistance vanish in their advance. No longer would the Taliban have to go to extraordinary means to gain possession of U.S.-produced arms; they were all now theirs.

A Taliban fighter with an American assault rifle guarding a U.S. armored transport vehicle at Kabul’s airport in August.  Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

More, in fact than they could handle, more than they required. Those thousands of U.S.-produced weapons and military accessories now the proud possession of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan sees the excess being openly sold by Afghan gun dealers who bought them from government soldiers and Taliban fighters; guns, ammunition and all manner of other indispensable materiel with which to wage war -- or insurrections, for both are constant occurrences in Afghanistan.

Not only weapons dealers, but numerous free-agent dealers setting up shop around Afghanistan in a free-for-all access to military weapons. For sale (not cheap), U.S.-produced pistols, rifles, grenades, binoculars, night-vision goggles; whatever is wanted can be had with rare exceptions. Originally provided to Afghan security forces undergoing U.S. training, all now marketable to ensure an already destabilized country of warlords and terrorist groups are well equipped to continue their war games.

 

A Taliban fighter in the Panjshir Valley in September with surplus weapons and ammunition found nearby.   Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Afghan entrepreneurs are having a field day of it in high popular demand. Gun dealers busy smuggling weapons through to Pakistan to satisfy the high demand for U.S.-made weapons there, as well. Arms and vehicles including M4 carbines, rockets, A-29 light attack aircraft, Humvees, countless ammunition types meant for assault rifles and machine guns, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Major Rob Lodewick a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department stated: "we recognize that large numbers of these weapons are probably now in Taliban hands". Correction: they're in everyone's hands, including Islamic State's and al-Qaeda's. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that the most sophisticated of the weaponry used by American troops in Afghanistan had been removed with the last forces leaving the country in late August.

No worries; all this information coming in about the wholesale looting of weapons and the ongoing firesales of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced weapons falling into the hands of U.S. Islamist adversaries who will quickly master their use, is being denied by official Taliban sources. So the world is not to give credence to gun merchants claiming that dealers were selling weapons such as antiaircraft guns, nor American-made M5s and .50-caliber machine guns...

Military vehicles transferred by the U.S. to the Afghan National Army in February 2021. Afghanistan Ministry of Defense/via REUTERS