Various news sites are hysterically lamenting that the US left ’83 billion’ in weapons and equipment such as humvees and helicopters.
Didn’t anyone bother to ask the US military?
Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said that before leaving Kabul airport on Aug. 30, the military “demilitarized” 70 MRAPs, 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft. “Those aircraft will never fly again,” he said. “They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone.”
‘Demilitarized’ means ‘damaging in place’ so as to render equipment useless.
What was operational is all the military facilities and equipment that was turned over to the Afghan security forces — which are now in the hands of the Taliban.
But as experts pointed out, the Taliban is not trained in some of the sophisticated equipment and they will not be able to maintain most of the equipment, especially when they need spare parts.