WASHINGTON — For months, the Biden administration was stockpiling military equipment for the Taliban before the collapse of the Afghan government. The report comes from Reuters who shares that well over a month before the Taliban’s march across the country, the Biden administration was sending military equipment to Afghanistan amid a “planned withdrawal.”
The plans of the Biden administration were not very well thought out or executed. But perhaps this was the plan all along.
According to Reuters, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters, “They’ll continue to see a steady drumbeat of that kind of support, going forward.”
The Biden administration had continued to ship new firearms, drones, communication gear, and more to the nation that they had plans to abandon in just a few short weeks. Even as the Taliban takeover continued, the shipments continued. The Taliban has bragged about the equipment they obtained, with videos of helicopters and firearms posted online.
According to one official, reported by Reuters, “the current intelligence assessment was that the Taliban are believed to control more than 2,000 armored vehicles, including U.S. Humvees, and up to 40 aircraft potentially including UH-60 Black Hawks, scout attack helicopters, and ScanEagle military drones.” That’s not just a few pieces of military equipment, that’s essentially a start-up kit for a defense force.
Reuters reports that the Biden administration is very concerned about the large amount of equipment that was left behind. According to reports, the administration has contemplated airstrikes to take out large pieces of equipment, but it has yet to put together a plan.
Officials report they are less concerned about the equipment because it is technologically advanced. They state it takes significant maintenance time and training to operate. Perhaps that was before China and Russia both have claimed their interest in Afghanistan.
Both nations will be racing to make friends with the Taliban. They refuse to call the Taliban terrorists and have technology similar to that of the United States. It is possible that they provide the training necessary to the Taliban regime.
While the Biden administration will claim that the equipment left behind was not stockpiled for the Taliban, what other explanation is there? As the Taliban raced across the country, taking it down in just over 1 week, the administration did nothing to stop them. They did not create a plan to evacuate Americans, the military, military equipment, or anything else. It’s as if the Biden administration was asleep.