Filenews 27 August 2021
A key aspect of the failed as it turned out to be the united states' quest to rebuild state institutions in Afghanistan was the long-standing effort to shape, train and equip armed forces in Afghanistan.
The reason was obvious. In order to form a government capable of having the whole country under its authority, especially at a time when armed resistance from the Taliban and other organisations was underway, but also to avoid a new civil war, such as the one that brought the Taliban to power in the 1990s, Afghanistan needed to acquire reliable (and battle-worthy) armed forces.
This necessity became more pronounced as the years went by. This had to do with the prospect of the withdrawal of US forces and the need to remain armed forces that can defend the government in Kabul, can halt the advance and gradual occupation of areas and ensure that there could be some kind of negotiation rather than the occupation of the capital by the Taliban.
But that is not how things turned out. The establishment of the armed forces and police forces in Afghanistan has failed to achieve this objective. This was also contributed by the widespread corruption that reached the point where those who served in them did not even get their entire salary, which was "lost" somewhere along the way.
This meant that there was no real mood for conflict with the Taliban. In addition, the latter adopted a specific tactic towards the units of the Afghan armed forces they encountered: they gave them the opportunity to leave without retaliation. Through a multitude of such negotiations at the local level, the Taliban managed to reach Kabul itself. When they got there, the government collapsed, the country's president fled abroad, and the Taliban found themselves in a position to rule the country without any resistance from the Afghan army or Afghan police. Only 500-600 Afghan commandos and military personnel went to Kabul airport to help U.S. forces there, and including the U.S. will be transported out of Afghanistan as part of the ongoing evacuation operation.
Huge equipment in the hands of the Taliban
However, the collapse of the Kabul government and the parallel collapse of whatever hierarchy the military and police forces of Afghanistan had meant that a large volume of weaponry and equipment passed into the hands of the Taliban.
And the point is that in all previous years they had provided a large volume of weaponry to the Afghan military and police forces. It is enough to consider that total American expenditure on the training, reinforcement and equipment of the Afghan security forces totalled $82.9 billion and related to personnel, ammunition, fuel, training, transport and maintenance costs.
This means that hundreds of thousands of M16 assault rifles, M4 arabes, pistols, submachine guns, bombers have fallen into the hands of the Taliban. Several thousand Ford Ranger vans, Humvee vehicles, but also a significant number of MRAP, the special personnel carriers designed to withstand mines and improvised explosive devices. Added to all this are communication equipment and equipment for detecting and dealing with bombs, as well as a large number of night vision devices and monitoring systems, and even biometric devices (with an open question about biometric data itself).
And of course, to all this there is also airborne means that the US had granted to the Armed Forces of Afghanistan. These include U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, Russian Mi-17 helicopters (purchased from at U.S. expense because they were cheaper and easier to use by Afghans) and Brazilian A-29 Supera Tucano propeller planes. Some of the helicopters and aircraft did not fall into the hands of the Taliban, because at least 46 of them (with 585 people on board) crossed the border to Uzbekistan, while some more went to Tajikistan. But enough was left in the hands of the Taliban. And although black hawks are more difficult to use and more expensive to maintain and therefore will probably be sold, Russian helicopters seem to some extent to be used.
Indeed, the fact that the Taliban can use this equipment was evident at their entry into Kabul where many noticed that they now had American equipment.
Beyond equipment
The issue of American equipment in the hands of the Taliban is just another aspect of a failed policy, which, despite the enormous cost to the US, has resulted in the exact opposite result, namely the seizure of power by those who were supposed to be the great adversaries of the United States.
Because this is the basic and this explains why they now have in their hands and valuable equipment, which a part of it will use and a part will probably sell (with the possibility of reaching armed organizations). Equipment that, along with the fact that they will have a decisive presence in the new government under development in Afghanistan, means that they will control both the state apparatus and the armed forces.
The equipment left by the US in Afghanistan certainly strengthens the Taliban. But the main thing is that they have been able to come to power, especially knowing that they will not accept any external imposition in the near future. And of course the correlation within the country towards those who want to challenge them has also been modified, which if combined with the success of the negotiations for the new government gives them relative stability in the exercise of power for the next period.
