In what could also be some of the devastating international coverage failures in fashionable U.S. historical past, President Joe Biden’s reckless 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan didn’t merely go away an influence vacuum, it handed America’s enemies one of many largest unauthorized arms transfers in historical past.
At this time, billions of {dollars} in U.S. weapons and gear are within the hands of terrorists, black market arms sellers, and hostile regimes.
In response to the Particular Inspector Normal for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the Taliban earned over $3.4 billion in income final 12 months, partly by promoting seized U.S. weapons to international terror networks. Teams akin to al-Qaeda associates, ISIS-Okay, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and others are actively utilizing these weapons for assaults and coaching.
A current BBC investigation revealed that half 1,000,000 weapons captured by the Taliban are actually unaccounted for—both misplaced, bought, or smuggled out.
The Taliban initially seized round a million objects of U.S.-funded navy {hardware}, together with M4 and M16 rifles, Humvees, MRAPs, and even Black Hawk helicopters.
Whereas a lot of the high-end gear stays non-operational because of lack of coaching and upkeep capability, hundreds of automobiles and small arms have been deployed in fight or bought to the very best bidder.
The BBC confirmed that the Taliban admitted these weapons have been lacking throughout a closed-door UN assembly in Doha.
Regardless of Pentagon assurances that almost all gear was disabled, the Taliban continues to flaunt U.S. {hardware} in military parades, most notably in August 2024, after they celebrated three years in energy by showcasing captured gear at Bagram Airfield, as soon as the principle hub of U.S. and NATO operations.
Diplomats from China and Iran attended the parade, highlighting a brand new geopolitical actuality: the U.S. is gone, and adversaries are taking its place.
Taliban leaders now view these weapons not simply as instruments of struggle however as symbols of legitimacy and energy.
A black-market arms economic system has emerged, with native commanders utilizing WhatsApp to commerce U.S. gear, typically gifting weapons to consolidate management.
Even the United Nations famous that the Taliban allowed its regional commanders to maintain 20% of all seized American weapons—additional fueling fragmentation and underground trafficking.
President Trump, forward of his second inauguration, blasted the Biden administration for handing over “$85 billion in weapons” to the Taliban.
Whereas the precise worth is debated, even conservative estimates peg the deserted gear at $7 billion or more, in line with the Division of Protection.
Since resuming workplace, Trump has vowed to reclaim the gear, stating: “If we have to pay them, that’s high-quality—however we wish our navy gear again.”
But the Taliban has refused, insisting the arms belong to the state. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared, “We seized these weapons from the earlier administration and can use them to defend the nation.”
In the meantime, China and Russia have cautiously moved to broaden their presence in Afghanistan, searching for to take advantage of the vacuum left by the U.S. withdrawal. Each international locations have reopened embassies in Kabul and hosted Taliban delegations.
In 2023, China grew to become the primary nation to just accept credentials from a Taliban-appointed ambassador—an act of restricted diplomatic recognition.
Russia, too, has stored channels open however, like China, stopped wanting formally recognizing the Taliban because the authentic authorities.
Although typically described as desperate to faucet into Afghanistan’s estimated $1 trillion in untapped mineral reserves, together with lithium, copper, and uncommon earths, neither China nor Russia has signed any main extraction agreements.
At most, a handful of non-binding MOUs have been floated, however none have resulted in precise mining operations.
The explanations are clear: Afghanistan stays too unstable, too underdeveloped, and too unskilled to help large-scale industrial extraction.
The rugged terrain, lack of roads and energy infrastructure, and an entire absence of educated technical labor imply that any severe useful resource challenge would require international firms to construct every little thing from scratch, at excessive price and excessive danger.
Even China, recognized for braving hostile environments to safe strategic minerals, has held again. For each China and Russia, non secular and cultural variations, together with the chance of jihadist spillover into their very own Muslim areas, have additional difficult relations.
Nonetheless, the Taliban continues to sign curiosity in aligning with anti-U.S. powers in hopes of securing legitimacy and funding.
Afghanistan could also be drifting into the orbit of America’s adversaries, however for now, it stays a pawn, not a accomplice, of their broader geopolitical technique.
To make issues worse, the U.S. oversight physique SIGAR will shut down in 2026, eliminating the final official line of accountability for U.S. gear and assist within the area.
Former SIGAR head John Sopko has argued that retrieving the weapons might not be financially possible, however the strategic price of leaving them in hostile arms is way extra harmful.
This isn’t only a coverage failure. It’s a long-term nationwide safety legal responsibility, one which continues to arm terrorists, embolden authoritarian states, and erode American affect throughout one of many world’s most risky areas.
