We have armed the Taliban to cause destruction in Afghanistan and elsewhere for generations

This is an opinion item.

Author(s)	Douglas Murray
Source	New York Post
Date	September 2, 2021
URL	https://nypost.com/2021/09/02/weve-armed-the-taliban-for-destruction-in-afghanistan-for-years/
Quote	Certainly, it is good to know that the Americans didn’t leave a ground-to-air missile system at the airport so the Taliban could shoot down the last American plane as it left Kabul airport. But aside from that, it is hard to see the success here. For instance, there is no word on whether the US managed, in their hasty withdrawal, to disable the 350,000 assault rifles they left behind. Or the 126,000 pistols, 1,000 armored vehicles, 64,000 machine-guns, 22,000 Humvees or 42,000 pick-up trucks and SUVs. We’ll be seeing the fallout from that for a long time to come. And we’ll be lucky if that equipment only remains in Afghanistan.

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This item argues for the position Withdrawal was poorly executed on the topic Withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan (2020–2021).