It was delivered to Kabul airport this week. According to reports, the last U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan came out facing an “elite unit” of the Taliban. At a season finale that the most dystopian screenwriter would have had a hard time inventing, the elite Taliban unit was tied to the U.S. military gear. That is, they not only wore uniforms and protective equipment provided by the fleeing U.S. Army, but paraded at the airport with U.S.-supplied weapons in U.S.-supplied vehicles.
This was the culmination of a two-week period that the White House is still trying to present as a success. They insist on one of the largest air bridges in history. In fact, the Biden administration has achieved a feat that few of us believe is possible: a political-military defeat that gets worse when you look at it the most.
Let’s take the issue of the gear that Americans have left behind. I’m sure by now everyone has seen the lists of weapons the United States left with the Afghan army quickly disbanded that America and its allies struggled to train for two decades.
The Taliban inherited the army equipment in its entirety. This total includes 33 Black Hawk helicopters, 43 MD 530 helicopters, 32 Mi-17 helicopters, 23 A-29 light attack aircraft, at least 33 other attack aircraft and three giant Hercules aircraft launched for a good measure. Thanks to the generosity of the U.S. taxpayer, the Taliban now have more attack helicopters than the United Kingdom and are more armed than almost every NATO country except the U.S.
When these facts emerged this week, part of the comment tried to pretend they weren’t big shakes. These last defenders of the president insisted that it did not matter that the Taliban had control of all these Black Hawks. Because, how could a group of goat herders, who have barely learned to drive their old rusty Soviet motorcycles, be expected to be re-trained as helicopter pilots? As if listening, ready, the Taliban began flying one of their new Black Hawks over the sky in Kabul. That was all F-you: first-hand equipment, in new hands, just a previous owner, hard to use.
Perhaps aware that this doesn’t look fantastic, the U.S. military claims to have disabled some of the equipment they left behind. On Monday, General McKenzie said that before leaving Kabul airport, the U.S. military permanently deactivated 150 vehicles and aircraft so that “they can never be used again.” According to reports, the rocket defense system remained in line until the last minute and then demilitarized.
It is certainly good to know that the Americans did not leave a ground-to-air missile system at the airport so that the Taliban could shoot down the last American plane when it took off from Kabul airport. But other than that, it’s hard to see success here. For example, it is not known whether the U.S. managed, in its hasty withdrawal, to deactivate the 350,000 assault rifles it left behind. Or the 126,000 pistols, 1,000 armored vehicles, 64,000 machine guns, 22,000 Humvees or 42,000 trucks and SUVs.
We will see the consequences of this for a long time. And we will be lucky if this team only stays in Afghanistan.
The defeated powers are playing the game of the “reformed Taliban” to buy themselves the minimum time in what appears to be a long game of humiliation. Canada’s Equality Minister Maryam Monsef addressed the Taliban last week. In a video message, he called on “our brothers, the Taliban” to “ensure the safe passage” to Afghanistan of anyone who wants to leave.
However, in the competition to lead Pollyanna in the West, Monsef does not even reach the final. This award should surely be for the United States Special Representative in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. As the last U.S. troops marched, Khalilzad could be found proclaiming that the Taliban “are now facing a test.” What is this test? “If you can get a Black Hawk over Kabul on the first day, how many days will it take you to get the whole fleet out of the air?”
No, according to Khalilzad, the big test for the Taliban is, “Can they lead their country to a secure and prosperous future where all its citizens, men and women, have a chance to reach their potential?”
If you had to guess, what would be the answer to that question? I would go for the “no”.
Khalilzad continued, “Can Afghanistan present the beauty and power of its diverse cultures, histories and traditions to the world?” Again, it would be a “no” to me.
Almost the only thing the Americans didn’t give the Taliban was a drone capability. America still has the advantage at least. Maybe now would be a good time to use it.
Reissued with permission from The Spectator.