SMOLNET PORTAL home about changes
[root][parent][raw file]
(DIR) ←Back
Taliban parade US military vehicles and weapons left behind to celebrate
3 years in power
(URL) https://i.redd.it/4jpycckj0oid1.jpeg (https://i.redd.it) image/jpeg
########################################################################
|u/pics-moderator - 1 month
|
|jeffers0n_steelflex, thank you for your submission. It has been removed
|for violating the following rule(s): --- - Rule 5: Posts must follow
|all [title guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/titles). ---
|For information regarding this and similar issues, please see the
|[rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/index/) and [title
|guidelines](/r/pics/wiki/titles). If you have any questions, please
|feel free to [message the moderators via modmail.](https://www.reddit.co
|m/message/compose?to=/r/pics&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20remova
|l%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/jeffers0n_steelflex&message=I%20hav
|e%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission
|.%5D%28https://redd.it/1es7php%3Fcontext%3D10%29)
|u/renndug - 1 month
|
|They have pilots on deck like this?
|u/SkellyboneZ - 1 month
|
|What's so hard? It's just a big fan that goes in the sky. 
|u/redditcreditcardz - 1 month
|
|Sky fan go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrttt
|u/yollerballer - 1 month
|
|Also yeet yeet skrrrt skrrt
|u/kiefferray - 1 month
|
|Roll up (*Yeet*) Drop that (*Yeet*) Skrt that (*Yeet*) Pop
|that (*Yeet*)
|u/lbkid - 1 month
|
|You. Never. Loved. Me. Mom.
|u/Xralius - 1 month
|
|(but I needed you whooaaaa)
|u/LA_Throwaways - 1 month
|
|*slap*
|u/CarolinaFree72 - 1 month
|
|![gif](giphy|4k184nfxSphcs)
|u/SomeSabresFan - 1 month
|
|Gets me every time
|u/kakapo88 - 1 month
|
|You guys are killing me.
|u/Dry-Papaya-5733 - 1 month
|
|Same 🤣👽💀
|u/Nearby_Drive9376 - 1 month
|
|Thanks Biden
|u/goldenface4114 - 1 month
|
|YoU nEvEr LoVeD mE, mOm
|u/InflammableMaterial - 1 month
|
|Drip Water Splash
|u/JillNye_TheScienceBi - 1 month
|
|Bop that?
|u/HonestGopnik - 1 month
|
|Ayeee ayeee
|u/Homie75 - 1 month
|
|Nah, see like for me.. for me.. it about that yeet yeet
|u/SkidzLIVE - 1 month
|
|Talm’ bout
|u/murphey_griffon - 1 month
|
|That is the sound of [sky
|hog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVQvH4qc5cg), not sky fan.
|u/Away-Chain5086 - 1 month
|
|Sky fan go soi soi soi soi soi
|u/MassiveBasil9948 - 1 month
|
|Tak tak tak tak tak
|u/KentuckyFriedEel - 1 month
|
|SOISOISOISOISOISOI
|u/GhostNode - 1 month
|
|Sui sui sui sui sui sui sui sui sui
|u/downtobehomies - 1 month
|
|Soisoisoisoisoisoi
|u/North-Employ7673 - 1 month
|
|Sky fan go brrrt made me deep laugh.
|u/Spartacus458 - 1 month
|
|They probably just watched a video online. I saw a video on reddit
|the other day showing the full start up and take off procedure of an
|f16. How hard could it be? /s
|u/swd120 - 1 month
|
|I mean , if Top Gun Maverick is accurate, you just fire it up, max
|out the throttle, and pull back on the stick - bam your flying
|home.
|u/i_should_go_to_sleep - 1 month
|
|For fixed wing, yes, for helicopters… if you don’t know what
|you’re doing you will be quickly returned to the ground
|against your will (and probably on your side) within seconds.
|u/xChoke1x - 1 month
|
|Incredibly quick.
|u/brewcrew63 - 1 month
|
|Yeah for sure! I recently started flying in MFS fixed wings
|are great! But holy fuck helis are hard to fly
|u/Ashleyempire - 1 month
|
|And a couple seconds later, you'll be on all your sides,
|because sides is all you will have left. Like wafer thin
|ham.
|u/Baldrich146 - 1 month
|
|I see you too have seen my flight record.
|u/WallabyInTraining - 1 month
|
|Well, lots of stuff will go flying. Just probably not you.
|u/FixatedOnYourBeauty - 1 month
|
|Pull Here To Eject ⏏️
|u/lord_dentaku - 1 month
|
|Yeah, that is the case for airplanes and jets. Helicopters
|are a whole different can of physics.
|u/Old_Faithlessness_94 - 1 month
|
|...and you are dead, you forgot the most important procedure.
|You have to play [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E](h
|ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E)
|u/JustADutchRudder - 1 month
|
|There was videos of them learning how to fly them back in the
|beginning of them being back. Pretty sure the video I seen was in
|a report on how they've crashed a few but they have guys getting
|the hang of it. When I seen the video, I understood what a drunk
|helicopter pilot would look like.
|u/907Lurker - 1 month
|
|I’ve got a decent amount of aircraft experience but flying a
|helicopter is nuts with no experience. I took lessons in an
|R-22 and the instructors gave me control in like the first 10
|minutes and I almost crashed it trying to hover. I can’t
|imagine dudes with no education or experience just doing trial
|and error in larger copters. Damn that would have been some
|prime comedy footage if it ever got released.
|u/JustADutchRudder - 1 month
|
|I assumed they have guys who've flown Soviet Helicopters and
|they were the ones giving it a go.
|u/kinga_forrester - 1 month
|
|Easier than that, just send some dudes off for flying
|lessons in like Iran or Pakistan or somewhere. The 9/11
|hijackers took lessons.
|u/FoodeatingParsnip - 1 month
|
|yeah but those guys supposedly showed no interest in how
|to land a plane. At least that's what i heard back in the
|day and flight instructors warning about it.
|u/kinga_forrester - 1 month
|
|I guess my point was more that there’s nothing stopping
|a terrorist for signing up for flying lessons.
|u/Longjumping-Sea320 - 1 month
|
|And from their friends in Pakistani military
|u/907Lurker - 1 month
|
|Yah same flying concept I suppose with throttle, stick, and
|pedals but totally different with instruments I imagine.
|It’s actually pretty miraculous that the Taliban could even
|get some in the air because there is a bunch of pre flight
|shit you need to do before even being able to take off.
|That’s why documented video would be gold because it was
|probably a full day of these guys just pushing buttons and
|yelling at each other before being able to lift off. I do
|recall seeing a video of a US helicopter taking off and
|immediately spinning out now that you mention it.
|u/Significant-Fill5645 - 1 month
|
|They’re American trained ANA (Afghan National Army) pilots
|that defaulted back to the Taliban after the pullout.
|It’s not that surprising, especially since there’s twenty
|years of training and experience. Also there are special
|forces trained ANASF now part of the taliban and they were
|selected because they were literate.
|u/thats_a_bad_username - 1 month
|
|I would think most of the Taliban are too young to have
|experience with any Soviet tech aside from AKs. I don’t
|recall hearing about them flying anything Soviet while the
|Coalition forces were in there for 20 years. I think it’s
|more likely they hired internationally sourced trainers or
|had made the former ANA pilots teach them when they couldn’t
|learn on their own. One of the main things the Taliban had
|said they aimed to achieve was the image of legitimacy in
|international politics so I think these guys aren’t the same
|stupid bigots their fathers were. just younger less stupid
|bigots. They know they will be observed by international
|governments for a long time so they don’t want to look like
|they have no capabilities.
|u/adamdoesmusic - 1 month
|
|Larger aircraft are often easier to handle and more stable due
|to mass. As they get bigger, it’s more about systems handling
|than simply keeping the thing in the air. An R22 is the Cessna
|150 of helicopters - it’s simpler, but you’re at the mercy of
|more forces!
|u/907Lurker - 1 month
|
|That’s the crazy part. I’ve worked with a bunch of afghan
|refugees that supported the US military that came over when
|the we pulled out and these guys were technically from a
|more educated part of the country. These guys were
|absolutely not mentally equipped to do any critical thinking
|and from my understanding, the Taliban were even less
|“educated.” We are talking about basically mental 10 year
|olds flying advanced aircraft which is extremely impressive
|because the trial and error of flying these things would
|have been an absolute shit show.
|u/i_should_go_to_sleep - 1 month
|
|Well, they have at least one US trained helicopter pilot
|who went to West Point and then was trained by the US to
|fly Mi-17s and then UH-60s in Afghanistan. When
|Afghanistan was falling, he defected to the taliban with a
|UH-60 instead of following orders and evacuating to
|Uzbekistan. He’s probably their top instructor.
|[source](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62566883.amp)
|u/brianschwarm - 1 month
|
|Same here (heli pilot, trained in R22/R44), I can’t imagine
|someone just getting in a helicopter and flying it easy.
|u/SeaworthinessFew2605 - 1 month
|
|Afghan Army had dozens of older UH-60's donated by the United
|States. So, they've had Blackhawk pilots for about 10 years or
|so already. These guys lived in the local communities, so it's
|pretty easy for the Taliban to blackmail them into continue
|flying the aircraft post US pulling out.
|u/Inevitable-Hat-3264 - 1 month
|
|Blackhawks have a stability augmentation system that makes it
|much easier to fly. I imagine they won't be flying them very
|long without parts and skilled maintainers.
|u/DinosaurDied - 1 month
|
|In fairness the national guard by me had crashed a few hundred
|feet from an office building and separators, a ski lift.  Tbh
|the Taliban seems to have more talent than we do lol 
|u/Plasticjesus504 - 1 month
|
|Yeah, they found out real quick earth beats helicopter.
|u/sheppo42 - 1 month
|
|A drunk helicopter pilot just tried flying one in Cairns
|Australia the other night after celebrating with the boys.
|u/jimbopalooza - 1 month
|
|I worked on F16s and starting them and taking off really isn’t
|that hard. Landing on the other hand….
|u/i_should_go_to_sleep - 1 month
|
|Way different than a helicopter. An F-16 will stay mostly wings
|level when you pull back on the stick, a helicopter *will* be
|over-controlled by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing
|and will crash within a minute. Edit: every time I took a
|fixed-wing dude up in a helicopter, they’d try to kill us just
|picking up.
|u/turbopro25 - 1 month
|
|Landing. We don’t need to know that part. The flying is all we
|are here for.
|u/Few_Memory_2703 - 1 month
|
|Nonsense. Every single plane or helicopter in the history of
|time that got airborne also landed. By that logic. Landing is
|easy. I mean, it literally happens every time. So….
|u/other_usernames_gone - 1 month
|
|Landing is easy. Landing in a way you can take off again
|afterwards, that's difficult.
|u/Solid_Snark - 1 month
|
|Getting them up in the air is easy. Getting them down in one
|piece is the tricky part.
|u/Jazzlike_Teaching645 - 1 month
|
|It's the maintenance that's eventually going to get them.
|u/Friendly_Estate1629 - 1 month
|
|It’s just lift vs drag vs rotation how hard could it be!
|u/mal_wash_jayne - 1 month
|
|Motherf*cker, the operating manual is in German! Don't you speak
|German? Yeah, motherf*cker I can speak it, I just can't read it
|all that well.
|u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep - 1 month
|
|Yous a motherfuckin' disgrace! *Sercunzi der herturnen unt
|steeunzi der shitzen der rotor strutt!* (Secure the aft doors
|and adjust the mitgerfucking rotor pedals!)
|u/gunsforevery1 - 1 month
|
|Fucking love this movie.
|u/gunsforevery1 - 1 month
|
|JEVALL!
|u/Live-the-dream - 1 month
|
|Me, myself and Irene …. Unmistakable humour 💋
|u/RMC_889 - 1 month
|
|Motherfucker you KNOW I had the flu!
|u/RMC_889 - 1 month
|
|Motherf*cker you KNOW I had the flu!
|u/powerlifter4220 - 1 month
|
|This is the post of the year. What a great movie
|u/Normal_Ad_2337 - 1 month
|
|Just rewatched that clip, think how good the real stunt pilot
|is, making it seem like the helicopter was out of control
|surrounded by a bunch of trees.
|u/gunsforevery1 - 1 month
|
|JEVALL!
|u/Cautious-Reserve8241 - 1 month
|
|Enrico Fermi would roll over in his motherfucking grave if he
|heard that stupid shit. I mean he would just turn over ass up in
|your face and wouldn't give a fuck!
|u/Reden-Orvillebacher - 1 month
|
|I can't figure out the atomic mass of this motherfuckin'
|deuteron!!
|u/DrManhattan_DDM - 1 month
|
|Say, what’s the diameter of a chicken egg?
|u/Gbrusse - 1 month
|
|Don't forget the roll!
|u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep - 1 month
|
|It's a movie quote.
|u/PitFiend28 - 1 month
|
|Would somebody get this chicken out of my ass
|u/DigitalNogi - 1 month
|
|nose zonked desert frightening connect sink alleged tie psychotic
|dependent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with
|[Redact](https://redact.dev)*
|u/Subject-Atmosphere-7 - 1 month
|
|Sidewinder?
|u/JohnRambo90 - 1 month
|
|Call me... Velvet.. Thhhhunderrrrr.
|u/turbocomppro - 1 month
|
|Seriously though, if you hand the controls over to me mid flight,
|I’d probably crash and kill everyone. But if you give me a week and
|a manual, I can probably get it off the ground and back down without
|breaking anything.
|u/LovesToSlooge - 1 month
|
|It's actually pretty stable and easy to fly mid flight - barring
|crazy maneuvers. Hovering off the ground and landings/take offs
|are where it gets tricky. Definitely takes practice
|u/AeroFX - 1 month
|
|I can do all of these on Battlefield 2 with a Keyboard and a
|mouse and I've been playing for 20 years now. I reckon I can do
|it!
|u/LovesToSlooge - 1 month
|
|Lmao well battlefield players are obviously the exception. My
|flight instructor was blown away when I immediately held a
|hover. I told him, "I've been farming noobs since 06."
|u/Sergent9932 - 1 month
|
|Doubt
|u/cinwald - 1 month
|
|[This](https://youtube.com/shorts/6IAIzlobTWQ?si=mui4lbG0YH4OkFOL)
|u/Foldog998 - 1 month
|
|Noice
|u/South_Bit1764 - 1 month
|
|Doesn’t seem like Pilots would really be the problem, rather the
|service. Every 40 hours of operation requires a 20hr service, and
|every 120hrs requires a 30-50hr service. So for every single hour
|it’s in the air it’s gonna spend need 50 minutes of labor time in
|the maintenance hangar, and that’s before we start talking about the
|engine’s time between overhauls. With very minimal usage that could
|be stretched out to a few years, but they wouldn’t have much
|training with them. Still, the bill would come. Each of those T700
|turboshafts would cost a normal person around $350k to have
|hoverhauled, so just the engines in these three aircraft would cost
|around $2M.
|u/MajMajor2x - 1 month
|
|[It can’t be that hard! It’s just lift vs drag and
|rotation!](https://youtu.be/4j9PadNdG5E?si=TBqmn_MolEnKITIS)
|u/foobadoop - 1 month
|
|Thank you. So much.
|u/Chilipatily - 1 month
|
|I don’t even have to click the link. Best trio ever.
|u/NOBOOTSFORYOU - 1 month
|
|I said I could speak the shit, I ain't say I could read it.
|u/GreatGigInTheSky855 - 1 month
|
|I was just talking about this movie today. One of my all time
|favorites
|u/xDevman - 1 month
|
|im glad someone posted it so i didnt have to go find the link
|u/Charlie_Brodie - 1 month
|
|He may have advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary
|narcissistic rage, but he is a very gentle person!
|u/Praet0rianGuard - 1 month
|
|Those pilots were trained by the US. A lot of ANA defected to Taliban
|once NATO left.
|u/Sabre_One - 1 month
|
|Eh, wouldn't say defected and more in line of...welp the US left,
|our government is gone, and we now have a new owner that isn't
|afraid to just execute you if you disagree.
|u/Gentare - 1 month
|
|Wager it's much more "our government doesn't exist anymore, the
|Taliban are willing to pay us a good wage to keep doing exactly
|what we were doing". Occam's razor and all.
|u/RogerianBrowsing - 1 month
|
|> Wager it’s much more “our government doesn’t exist anymore,
|the Taliban are willing to ~~pay us a good wage~~ not execute us
|to keep flying helicopters the Taliban otherwise can’t fly”.
|Occam’s razor and all. Fixed that I think
|u/Gentare - 1 month
|
|Do you think the Taliban doesn't have jobs? That it doesn't
|pay the ones who hold the security and military part of its
|state while it's still in civil war?
|u/-Daetrax- - 1 month
|
|I read a wonderful article a while back about the Taliban
|fighters being immeasurably unhappy with their new clerk
|jobs.
|u/kaloonzu - 1 month
|
|Read the same article.
|u/JKdriver - 1 month
|
|Muhammad in Taliban accounts payable griping about
|having to do a required 45 minute cyber security module
|or they’ll cap his ass.
|u/chasmccl - 1 month
|
|Same. The best part of that article was how relatable it
|was. The taliban was complaining about having to be in
|the office 40 hours a week with only enough real work
|for 20 hours and being bored, and wishing they had back
|the freedom of jihad.
|u/Gnome-Phloem - 1 month
|
|And how the wifi made all of them addicted to twitter.
|Great read. Also interesting were his complaints
|about actual taliban things: women in public places,
|music, etc making him uncomfortable and city people
|not caring about the new rules.
|u/RogerianBrowsing - 1 month
|
|The taliban has jobs, and they pay their workers/soldiers.
|That doesn’t change the fact that those pilots almost
|certainly faced the option of being killed or changing teams
|u/Lawd_Fawkwad - 1 month
|
|The Taliban wasn't really killing former ANA wholesale,
|that treatment was reserved for commanders and special
|forces who were much more ideological in their commitment.
|ANA pilots had the resources to leave and they were
|prioritized during the evacuation due to their skills
|being usable by the Taliban, the ones currently flying
|more or less made an active choice to stay and cooperate.
|u/mickelboy182 - 1 month
|
|I don't think either of your contentions are mutually
|exclusive... Let's not pretend they had much of a choice.
|u/empire314 - 1 month
|
|Welcome to reddit. Make anything up about Afghanistan, China,
|North Korea, Russia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Cuba or Venezuela,
|and the more dramatic the bullshit is, the more upvotes you
|get.
|u/WriterV - 1 month
|
|I mean... also "It would be nice to not get imprisoned and/or
|get executed". When your allies abandoned you (disclaimer: not
|blaming US soldiers, situation was complex, I get it. Just is
|absolutely soul crushingly pointless since it renders useless
|all sacrifices made from the other side)... what are you gonna
|do at that point? Even the most morally good ANA members would
|know that staunchly opposing the Taliban would be entirely
|useless at that point. So it's either defect to the de facto
|ruling government, or die/suffer for nothing.
|u/lateformyfuneral - 1 month
|
|I mean, the Afghan National Army in general didn’t put up much of
|a fight compared to the Ukrainian Army for example. The US, under
|Trump, agreed to a truce which meant for a year it was just ANA vs
|the Taliban, with the US Army on the sidelines. The Taliban took
|over every provincial capital in turn with mass surrenders of
|Afghan forces every time.
|u/pick362 - 1 month
|
|Afghanistan fell so quickly because most of the populace
|(especially military) WERE Taliban or sympathizers. Sharia law is
|very popular among men in the country. There’s a reason the
|country fell with zero resistance.
|u/Robot-Candy - 1 month
|
|Half of the Iraqi Criminal Defense Core we trained defected while I
|was there in 2004. They emptied armories and peaced out.
|u/Pheniquit - 1 month
|
|With respect to pilots, It’s more likely that the Taliban approached
|their base after some fighting a distance away, secured it without
|fighting, they got orders from their commander to stand down. Then
|there was regime change, and then they went back to work. Not sure
|if that’s a defection as most imagine it as I think you would have
|to declare allegiance to the force before the conflict is over - it
|isn’t clear that they had to acknowledge that they were now part of
|the Taliban etc before the war was over.
|u/garry4321 - 1 month
|
|The ones that werent any good [arent around
|anymore...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0-zbuO9Ugs)
|u/BongoTheMonkey - 1 month
|
|Training by attrition. 
|u/Plothunter - 1 month
|
|That's the one I was thinking about. 2 dudes hopped in thinking how
|hard could it be?
|u/Haggisboy - 1 month
|
|If Battlefield Earth taught us anything it's that cavemen can fly
|Harriers without training.
|u/TheLocust911 - 1 month
|
|Man what a goofy movie, based on a goofy book, written by the
|founder of Scientology. In the book they never flew harriers, they
|took advantage of the increased access to info and training because
|their overlord wanted more useful slaves. They eventually figured
|out the DRM of the space fighters and that's what they ended up
|hijacking. The entire second half of the book is about figuring out
|how to get Earth out of the mountain of debt it had inherited from
|their now overthrown empire.
|u/mcnathan80 - 1 month
|
|Fun fact: during WW2 while in the Navy. L Ron Hubbard fired on
|Mexico
|u/bigboilerdawg - 1 month
|
|I think he depth-charged a log too.
|u/TURD_SMASHER - 1 month
|
|I depth charged a log this morning
|u/glory_holelujah - 1 month
|
|After the war he helped summon the Antichrist by watching Jack
|Parsons masturbate furiously in the desert.
|u/mcnathan80 - 1 month
|
|Was that before the Allens/Parsons project?
|u/Verdigris_Wild - 1 month
|
|Ooh, do they get out of the debt by starting a scam religion and
|take money from gullible followers for "personality tests", maybe
|by recruiting some celebrities to make it seem attractive?
|u/DrunkenSmuggler - 1 month
|
|And that harriers will still work after X hundred years of no
|maintenance
|u/Darigaazrgb - 1 month
|
|Which funny enough the book actually mentions that they found
|fighter jets but they were useless because the fuel had long
|turned to sludge.
|u/hallese - 1 month
|
|FWIW, in the book it was only a few months. Edit: actually, it’s
|been a long time since I read Battlefield Earth, but I’m Pretty
|sure it was somewhere between six and 18-months after the war that
|the humans rose up.
|u/Darigaazrgb - 1 month
|
|It was long enough that the fuel was useless, they specifically
|mention this when looking for weapons. They also tried Fort Knox
|like in the movie, but it was cleaned out and found a crashed
|armored truck with gold bars in it.
|u/hallese - 1 month
|
|Yeah, I’m wondering what book I read two decades ago I’m
|thinking of but I skimmed the synopsis of Battlefield Earth
|and that wasn’t it. Maybe it was a short-story with a similar
|plot from my Sci-Fi class in college?
|u/cadillacbeee - 1 month
|
|Don't need to be maintained if it ain't been used 🤷
|u/bpows - 1 month
|
|HA! Man-animals are capable of anything.
|u/KnotSoSalty - 1 month
|
|The Taliban had helicopters prior to being ousted. They were mostly
|Soviet designs though. Likely these pilots are either ex-ANA or were
|trained in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, or
|Egypt. All of whom also operate the UH60. The conversation about how
|much equipment we left behind in Afghanistan is annoying to me because
|it ignores the obvious reality that there should have been MORE not
|less. The US gov never believed in the ANA enough to give them
|anything like overmatch capability against the Taliban. Throughout
|the entire 20 year conflict the US provided 72b$ in military aid.
|That sounds like a lot but the military spent vastly more just on R&D
|projects that didn’t work during that period. For comparison; 24b$
|just in failed research projects to replace the Bradley. Actual
|military aid to the ANA was a joke, and the Taliban parading around in
|a couple humvees with some tired black hawks overhead doesn’t make it
|different. Why didn’t we give them the good stuff? Because we didn’t
|trust them. Which raises the real question, why did we bother if we
|couldn’t trust our allies?
|u/Admiral_Ackbar_1325 - 1 month
|
|Well considering how they folded almost immediately once the
|withdrawal began, I'd say maybe our mistrust was warranted. Someone
|should have realized that despite the training and equipment, they
|were never going to become a competent fighting force.
|u/TaskForceCausality - 1 month
|
|>>Someone should have realized that despite the training and
|equipment, they were never going to become a competent fighting
|force The problem with Afghanistan (and South Vietnam long
|before) was corruption. The soldiers and security people were
|either not paid or paid peanuts, as mid level commanders up to
|their warlord bosses embezzled literally billions. The Western
|staff who were supposed to enforce the rules got the “*you wanna
|keep your job or not*?” speech if they tried to push
|accountability. Likely because high level contractors and senior
|military/civilian officials got paid off selling the BS that was
|“The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”. After twenty years of
|Western & Afghan graft, the grift ran out of steam and the whole
|thing imploded like the bad Ponzi scheme it was.
|u/token_friend - 1 month
|
|Source: 4 years in service around 2010 with a combat deployment.
|After leaving service I worked in acquisitions and procurement
|for the department of defense. The "Corruption" point is often
|repeated but is absolutely false. Afghanistan didn't fail due to
|corruption, greed, or anything to do with money. There was more
|than enough money to go around to satisfy greed. Afghanistan
|was a failure because the outside support and sustained
|resistance was too much to overcome given the constraints placed
|on NATO forces. The constraints placed on NATO made the war in
|Afghanistan absolutely surgical in comparison to any invasion in
|history (modern or otherwise). Those constraints meant avoiding
|collateral damage, maintaining an international coalition,
|providing local aid, supporting local governments, and most
|crucially, allowing Afghanistan to become a democracy. In other
|words, winning hearts and minds. How surgical? Here's some
|facts: - The total number of civilian casualties per year during
|the 20 year war was a relatively small 3500 (6k per year so far
|in Ukraine, around 20k so far in 10 months in Palestine). - Life
|expectancy for Afghans increased by 11 years from its 55 in 2000
|to 66 in 2020 - Literacy rate increased for Afghans by nearly
|100% during the war. - Infant mortality was reduced by 50% from
|2000 to 2018. - GDP grew ~3.1% per year despite the war. Making
|those numbers happen during an actual war (and the myriad of
|other measurable improvements in Afghanistan from 2000 - 2020)
|is what actually cost NATO a metric fuckton of money (and
|lives). And its what NATO wrongly believed would win the war:
|popular support turning against the Taliban in favor of western
|ideals and improvements. That simply did not happen and
|seemingly no improvements to life could have won that support.
|u/TaskForceCausality - 1 month
|
|>>the “Corruption” point is often repeated but absolutely
|false The historical record contradicts this. The Inspector
|General for Afghanistan Reconstruction asserted that
|[corruption was a causal factor in the nations collapse.](http
|s://www.npr.org/2021/10/29/1050379870/inspector-general-
|report-issued-on-the-collapse-of-the-afghan-government)
|Further, House of Representatives testimony: [SIGAR has
|recently obtained a substantial number of new documents
|from a confidential source containing detailed allegations
|relating to funds that were transferred out of
|Afghanistan before the collapse of the government. This
|investigation is in its preliminary stages, but the
|documents indicate that tens of millions of dollars in
|cash and gold bullion may have been illicitly spirited
|out of the country through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and
|other neighboring countries. There are allegations that
|these transfers were orchestrated by or on behalf of
|influential people, including then-current or former
|members of the Afghan government. We will apprise the
|committee of the results of our investigation as soon
|as we are able.](https://oversight.house.gov/wp-
|content/uploads/2023/04/SIGAR-Testimony-23-22-TY.pdf)
|u/token_friend - 1 month
|
|10's of millions of dollars isn't the straw that broke that
|camel's back. That's a drop in the bucket.
|u/RepresentativeRun71 - 1 month
|
|And I’m looking at this photo thinking no real hardware is
|there as it’s all stuff that civilians can buy if they
|wanted to. That includes the Blackhawk’s
|https://www.controller.com/listings/for-
|sale/sikorsky/uh-60a-black-hawk/aircraft The only thing
|that’s legit out the hands of civilians looks like the 5
|M2’s mounted on the Hummers. This isn’t the flex anybody
|really thinks it is. If they had a decent economy and
|relations with other countries they’d at least have legit
|APCs.
|u/Drjack815 - 1 month
|
|Both the taliban and ISIS paid their soldiers more than we paid
|the afghan national army soldiers, that’s why we got the worst of
|the bunch. Which is crazy to think when we spent trillions of
|dollars there. Meanwhile some contractors made millions/billions
|and rode off into the sunset.
|u/acg3 - 1 month
|
|There was so much corruption in the Afghan army a lot of the
|money meant for soldiers was stolen by government officials
|u/ZealousidealLettuce6 - 1 month
|
|If it's as simple as paying more, that's an easy game the US
|always wins. The problem is: that's not the real reason. The
|real reason is that nobody cares enough to save whatever that
|place is. Nobody cares.
|u/gobblox38 - 1 month
|
|I was in Afghanistan in 2010. The corruption was very apparent.
|One Afghan supply clerk horded mattresses to use as bribes. The
|unit he was supposed to supply were sleeping on the floor. It's no
|wonder why the Afghani government collapsed immediately. Who would
|want to fight for people like that?
|u/ClosedContent - 1 month
|
|Watching the ANA do jumping jacks was all they needed to know they
|were incompetent and weren’t up to the task. I don’t think any
|administration could have done a good job. You can’t “make” people
|fight for their country.
|u/Puzzleheaded_Try3559 - 1 month
|
|Many wanted to fight, but had literally no ammunition to do so.
|u/soonerfreak - 1 month
|
|Because a lot of people made a lot of money on the wasteful 20 years
|we spent there. It was never about over throwing the Taliban long
|term because that was never a realistic goal.
|u/qqggff11 - 1 month
|
|If you ever visited Afghanistan during our occupation you would know
|immediately why we didn’t trust them. They didn’t give a shit. How
|did anyone ever actually believe they could be a functioning
|democracy? Entire thing was a huge joke
|u/GhostOfLumumba - 1 month
|
|also, higher the tech more of the maintenance needed. So , even if
|they got ahold of something newer and better it would be useless
|without proper parts and engineers on site
|u/cat_prophecy - 1 month
|
|That jives with what I have heard from Afghan War vets: no one
|trusted the ANA, period. Mostly because the people who were supposed
|to be our allies were constantly engaged in shady shit that got
|people killed.
|u/Mo-shen - 1 month
|
|Yes. Most of the equipment claimed to be left was at end of life.
|Most of the equipment needs constant maintenance that would not be
|happening. It would have been most expensive to try to take it
|than leave it. It's the usual low information hate spewage you see
|from the people who plant their flag on this one.
|u/jericho_buckaroo - 1 month
|
|I was gonna say, a couple of the choppers in that pic look like
|they're of Russian origin. And IDK how they can keep any of that
|stuff running with no spare parts and no maintenance people.
|u/redditcreditcardz - 1 month
|
|Yeah, there’s like 6 guys left after they played lawn darts with them
|for a few years
|u/CronoTS - 1 month
|
|I absolutely remember that taliban takes helicopter training video.
|u/Rokea-x - 1 month
|
|My favorite was talibans discovers and try to use a gym
|u/devilsdontcry - 1 month
|
|I mean the last president of Iran also had a helicopter pilot…. Until
|he didn’t anymore
|u/MagickalFuckFrog - 1 month
|
|You mean Mossad agent Eli Copter?
|u/SmallRocks - 1 month
|
|Getting an aircraft in the air is easy. Landing it is a completely
|different ball game. Also, good luck learning how to use the
|weapons systems. Also also, good luck in maintaining the craft
|without a spare parts/supply infrastructure.
|u/NervousSWE - 1 month
|
|None of this is that hard. Yes doing it at the scale the U.S.
|military does is next to impossible for anyone outside of the U.S.
|but this not the case here. The Taliban is not Hamas. There are
|Afghan military officials who spent the better part of the last
|decade being trained by the U.S. army working with the Taliban now.
|They are well trained and are now the official government of
|Afghanistan. You think in three years they couldn't figure out how
|to train people to fly and land a helicopter and use some weapons?
|These aren't F-35's. Also you seem to misunderstand what happened.
|The U.S. didn't just leave all of this stuff in Afghanistan in a mad
|scramble. It was given to the ANA who were trained how to use and
|maintain it. The ANA surrendered it to the Taliban when they took
|over.
|u/justaguy394 - 1 month
|
|Maintaining a Blackhawk is a lot of work. They may have the
|training and manuals, but they won’t be able to get parts as they
|have export restrictions. And sand is brutal on key components…
|these won’t be flying that long.
|u/h0micidalpanda - 1 month
|
|Notice they’ve got them for parade, but dont seem to be using
|them in combat. Edit: typo
|u/Bacontoad - 1 month
|
|What for? Blackhawks aren't essential for removing young girls
|from their families.
|u/unassumingdink - 1 month
|
|What combat, though?
|u/Pseudoburbia - 1 month
|
|Dad was a helicopter mechanic. Maintenance was his full time
|job. Like not fixing problems, that too, but most days were just
|the equivalent of checklists and revving the engine for 15
|minutes while checking lubricant levels. No fucking way do these
|groups have the systems or people in place to keep that up.
|u/Pheniquit - 1 month
|
|I mean if you take over an airbase that has people who know
|how to do that stuff, why couldn’t you just tell them to keep
|doing it? The challenge seems like it would be in maintaining
|a flow of material parts etc. But if you just tell them to
|stop flying and only maintain for things like parades maybe
|what you have could last years?
|u/maxman162 - 1 month
|
|That assumes the staff stayed and willingly let themselves
|be captured by the Taliban and weren't part of the masses of
|people trying to flee.
|u/SmallRocks - 1 month
|
|Those spare parts are going to run out eventually.
|u/Extinguish89 - 1 month
|
|Getting in, landing, and operating it is pretty easy. I do it in gta
|5 all the time
|u/coderash - 1 month
|
|mfer it can't be that hard. It's just lift vs drag and rotation!
|u/basicastheycome - 1 month
|
|There’s been plenty of time to train up some. It wouldn’t be a big
|stretch if Russia or some other country did provide such services
|u/arebee20 - 1 month
|
|Hell ya they do, pilots trained by us. Ex-afghan army pilots we spent
|20 years training that immediately flipped sides once we left. USA
|baby! USA! USA!
|u/AceO235 - 1 month
|
|University of youtube graduates
|u/Super-Candy-5682 - 1 month
|
|Weren't these given to the Afghan government?
|u/vertigo72 - 1 month
|
|Traded to the Afghan government. So it's not u.s. equipment other than
|where it was manufactured. It's Afghan equipment that was abandoned by
|their government, not ours. Edit: Afghan = people Afghani = money
|u/sudsomatic - 1 month
|
|Hate to be that guy but when you say Afghani, it’s referring to
|money.
|u/vertigo72 - 1 month
|
|I learned something new. Thanks. I used the incorrect word, and
|you saved me from using it incorrectly again in the future.
|Cheers.
|u/floppydude81 - 1 month
|
|You… you are supposed to threaten the previous commenter. You
|must be new so we will let it slide.
|u/octopornopus - 1 month
|
|Hey, you corrected him and showed leniency on his mistake,
|acknowledging that not everyone spends all day on Reddit.
|That's pretty cool. **You salty bag of dicks.**
|u/1billionthcustomer - 1 month
|
|Aaaaaand.. blocked.
|u/sudsomatic - 1 month
|
|wtf man you’re not supposed to be this nice to my comment.
|u/VictorOladeepthroat - 1 month
|
|Fuck you and your afghani you stupid bitch
|u/InsignificantZilch - 1 month
|
|*Redditors; this is was accepting a correction with humility
|looks like.*
|u/bucho80 - 1 month
|
|Also what making a mistake while praising someone for politely
|correcting another for misusing a word looks like!
|u/InsignificantZilch - 1 month
|
|![gif](giphy|2h8BdeXxhGGB2)
|u/Frashmastergland - 1 month
|
|You idiots are going to make me cry!
|u/puffindatza - 1 month
|
|Had someone try to talk down to me last night for something
|similar. It’s so insane how emotional people get on this app
|It’s nice that they admitted they were wrong and it’s double
|nice that the commenters were cool with the response instead
|of trying to argue
|u/wfbsoccerchamp12 - 1 month
|
|Sounds like you owe him Afghani
|u/Flangepacket - 1 month
|
|Wholesome. Thank you, today has been manic.
|u/nubsauce87 - 1 month
|
|I thought Afghani was a kind of dog?
|u/Duster929 - 1 month
|
|It's a quilt.
|u/LongTatas - 1 month
|
|It’s a shawl
|u/chivesr - 1 month
|
|Guys, the afghanistananis with aids
|u/GG-VP - 1 month
|
|And what's the country adjective?
|u/The-Courteous-Count - 1 month
|
|Afghan
|u/Xerox748 - 1 month
|
|So it would be correct to say “The Afghan people need more
|chairs.” and it would be incorrect to say “The Afghani people need
|more chairs.” Is that right? Can you use Afghani in a sentence
|where it’s referring to money? Would “I have a fat wad of Afghani
|bills in my pocket” be the correct way to use it? Or is it more “I
|lost all of my Afghanis at the casino”? What about “Poorly managed
|monetary policy is causing the Afghani to deflate”?
|u/Fynndidit - 1 month
|
|What was this equipment traded for?
|u/Aromatic_Object7775 - 1 month
|
|The guarantee that they would use it to fight the Taliban
|u/Zestyclose_Bread2311 - 1 month
|
|Mission Accomplished 
|u/_Claymation_ - 1 month
|
|Fission Mailed
|u/mikelimebingbong - 1 month
|
|LOL
|u/SuperGameTheory - 1 month
|
|Getting tfo of there
|u/kram_ttocs - 1 month
|
|Afghanistanani
|u/quack_the_archer - 1 month
|
|That’s a shawl
|u/westbee - 1 month
|
|Thank you.  I was communication in the Army and was pretty pissed
|off thinking some units said fuck it and left their shit.  We
|brought back every single speck of dust we took over there. We even
|dismantled everything we built. 
|u/razz57 - 1 month
|
|“Traded”. Ha! You bought it for them.
|u/heisenberg070 - 1 month
|
|Traded for what exactly? A trade involves receiving something
|tangible in return.
|u/SuperGameTheory - 1 month
|
|The military-industrial complex got paid. The politicians got
|paid. We exited an unpopular occupation, left the assets behind so
|we could buy new assets, not have to bring the old ones home, give
|Afghanistan some semblance of a chance to have defenses, and put
|any results on the old man in the Oval Office. Pretty good trade.
|u/SoloWingPixy88 - 1 month
|
|Traded for the Afghan government
|u/bewarethetreebadger - 1 month
|
|Yes. And then the Taliban took them when the USA left.
|u/GyspySyx - 1 month
|
|There ya go.
|u/Evening_Chemist_2367 - 1 month
|
|Correct, most of this is equipment that was transferred to Afghan
|National Army and Afghan Police over the span of 20 years prior to our
|withdrawal.
|u/sto_brohammed - 1 month
|
|Honestly I'm impressed they've been able to keep that many HMMWVs
|running that long. I'd imagined that the parts would cost half of
|Afghanistan's GDP. The goddamned things break even if they're just
|sitting in the motor pool. Props to the Taliban mechanics and I guess
|their dudes actually do proper PMCS.
|u/Black_Otter - 1 month
|
|I don’t know how many originally got left behind but I only see 7 in
|this photo so if we left a bunch they’ve been scavenging the dead ones
|u/Guthrotull - 1 month
|
|I remember reading somewhere that the Taliban has the second largest
|fleet of humvees in the world.
|u/QZRChedders - 1 month
|
|I’d say that borders on a strategic disadvantage more than
|anything with my experience of them and just how many parts they
|can shit out while barely being able to meet mission needs
|u/Guthrotull - 1 month
|
|Yeah, but it would have been a lot cooler if the US had taken
|the time to demo all that hardware with high explosives instead
|of basically giving it away. The most beneficial part of the
|Taliban becoming an "organized" military is they now have to
|deal with admin issues and systemic low morale.
|u/QZRChedders - 1 month
|
|It’s difficult when a lot was officially in the care of the
|then Afghan government. They should’ve been on it more when it
|was clear the government was falling but you can’t exactly go
|around sticking C4 to vehicles being used by your allies. It
|wasn’t the fault of individual Afghan units, the whole thing
|went to shit pretty quickly
|u/MotorcycleMosquito - 1 month
|
|That fall of the govt happened in like 4 days. Biden
|pushed the withdrawal date back 2 or 3 months because they
|were still weren’t fully prepared for the withdrawal. At the
|same time they were getting the feeling that this might
|happen… Pompeo basically gave the Taliban the keys to the
|city in exchange for no bloodshed for the year going into
|the election.
|u/QZRChedders - 1 month
|
|The writing was indeed on the wall, but a premature
|pullout could doom any chance of the regime recovering so
|I do understand why it makes sense to hold off. All in
|all, a trade for anything in exchange for a fairly
|bloodless withdrawal is better than the alternative, which
|would’ve been hugely messy. Brutally, we probably
|shouldn’t have ever been there, the Taliban were almost
|inevitable and the populace felt the same. Afghanistan
|adds another empire to the graveyard. Honestly though?
|Some pretty shit vehicles and some overall pretty basic
|helicopters isn’t an enormous step up for the Taliban.
|Ideally none absolutely, but in the messy shit storm that
|had brewed, I’d say it was about as okay as one could
|realistically hope. I’m far more upset at the ANA guys
|left behind than any hardware
|u/SirStrontium - 1 month
|
|It was a lose lose situation. Really honestly consider for
|a moment what would be said if the Biden administration
|stripped the Afghanistan army of all weapons, vehicles,
|and supplies before the US military pulled out. It would
|be seen as the US throwing them to the wolves without even
|a *hypothetical chance* of fighting back, it’s essentially
|murder, like leaving a someone naked and with no water in
|the middle of the desert. It would likely be considered a
|humans rights violation or a crime against humanity. At
|least if you leave them some equipment, they have *some*
|chance of fighting back. It puts the decision and
|responsibility to resist in the hands of the Afghani
|people, instead of condemning them to death by pulling
|everything out.
|u/shoggies - 1 month
|
|It’s like a rushed plan to pull out was a horrible idea and
|undid 20 years of stabilization
|u/actualsysadmin - 1 month
|
|Admin issues to break our enemy mentally
|u/EmmEnnEff - 1 month
|
|> Yeah, but it would have been a lot cooler if the US had
|taken the time to demo all that hardware with high explosives
|instead of basically giving it away. The US withdrew in order
|to hand over internal security of Afghanistan to its
|government. Blowing all their stuff up before leaving would
|have made it clear that they have *no confidence* in the
|results of *twenty years* of its 'nationbuilding'. (And raises
|the question of *why the fuck did it start the war in the
|first place*?) Since American culture is very focused on
|saving face, and not acknowledging wrongdoing, that would have
|been a non-starter.
|u/defdoa - 1 month
|
|They would be a bigger threat if they had a fleet of Toyota
|Corollas.
|u/221missile - 1 month
|
|You read misinformation. Throughout the 20 years, US congress gave
|the Afghan military enough humvees to make the 2nd largest fleet
|but most of them were destroyed or fell to disrepair long before
|US withdrawal.
|u/Guthrotull - 1 month
|
|Yeah I can see that and apparently Taiwan actually received
|something like 9000 units which really makes it 2nd largest
|fleet of humvees according to wikipedia.
|u/Mistersinister1 - 1 month
|
|Properly maintained is the key word, they were kinda junk but
|relatively easy to fix with the proper parts of course. I drove ours
|probably over 10k miles in Iraq back in 03 and it only broke down a
|few times and only needing a wrecker recovery once.
|u/ForeverAlonzo - 1 month
|
|That’s a lot of break downs for 10k miles though, by “normal car”
|standards
|u/leachja - 1 month
|
|I don't think "normal car duty" and "HMMV duty" are comparable
|though.
|u/bowlbinater - 1 month
|
|HMMV duty in a combat zone, ~~nonetheless.~~ *no less.* (Edit):
|as u/SymphonikAge noted, I don't English too good sometimes.
|u/anthonycarbine - 1 month
|
|With dirt roads everywhere clogging every nook and cranny with
|dust and dirt
|u/XyogiDMT - 1 month
|
|Dust and dirt can definitely wreak havoc on an engine
|u/octopornopus - 1 month
|
|Sure, but lookit that Hilux. How many times has that broke down?
|u/user1mbp - 1 month
|
|NEVER
|u/cyberjellyfish - 1 month
|
|You may be joking, and even if you're not the hilux definitely
|deserves it's reputation, but part of reliability is ease of
|maintenance and access to parts. The hilux has both. The
|world is awash in whatever spare part you might need.
|u/ConstantDarkness - 1 month
|
|There is a reason there was literally a war called the
|"Toyota war," unfortunately of all the world groups to pick
|up on how reliable it was, it was millitias and terrorists,
|so it probably dampens Toyota's pride a bit, but either way,
|one hell of a machine
|u/cyberjellyfish - 1 month
|
|I mean, if I were them I'd advertise with it. Like, "I
|don't condone them, but our *consumer* trucks have been
|working in active combat zones for decades"
|u/reality72 - 1 month
|
|Honestly if I were the Taliban I would sell the humvees and
|buy more 1980s Hiluxes. Those things just do not die.
|u/ForeverAlonzo - 1 month
|
|Very fair
|u/Professional_Read413 - 1 month
|
|Lol 10k miles in Iraq/Afghanistan might be a little different.
|u/BillyTheGoatBrown - 1 month
|
|At the same time 10k combat zone miles is pretty impressive for
|both the humvee and the driver.
|u/Mistersinister1 - 1 month
|
|Yeah, that's a modest estimate. I drove my commander around, his
|job was to buy stuff off of local economies for MWR purposes. So
|we were all over that country, up and down, probably seen the
|more of the country than most of the locals. Sometimes
|overnight, all day/night driving. I beat the shit out of that
|out of that Humvee and it smelled like hot ass most of the time.
|Once in a lifetime experience and that dust and sand really took
|its toll on the old girl.
|u/Beachdaddybravo - 1 month
|
|MWR purposes? What is that?
|u/Mistersinister1 - 1 month
|
|Morale, welfare and recreation. So basically just
|entertainment stuff like board games, sports stuff, freon
|for mini fridges and the like. Lots of giant blocks of ice
|too. We had an entire palace in the Tikrit compound that was
|MWR for other soldiers to come and decompress, it also had a
|giant indoor pool.
|u/Beachdaddybravo - 1 month
|
|Ok, thanks. The military uses so many acronyms that I
|can’t keep track of them all.
|u/Lews-Therin-Telamon - 1 month
|
|How many miles of combat operations in a desert do you think a
|normal car would get without a breakdown?
|u/jackbristol - 1 month
|
|Seems like a fair comparison…
|u/ahnsimo - 1 month
|
|A lot of those same vehicles were still in service when I hit the
|fleet a decade later, and by that point they were just too worn down
|to reliably function. I vividly remember our Motor-T guys pulling
|6-day work weeks for a month straight trying to get us ready for a
|field exercise in 29 Palms, and at least a quarter of our vehicles
|stalled out on I-15 coming up from Camp Pendleton.
|u/mishap1 - 1 month
|
|Interesting the equipment you expected to fail 3 years out are the
|Humvees and not the Black Hawks.
|u/Stonedfiremine - 1 month
|
|They source parts easily, black hawks aren't some sortie advance
|weapon. It's helicopter that is several decades old. I would be
|surprised if they couldn't find parts.
|u/mishap1 - 1 month
|
|Still seems like it'd be more difficult to keep running than a
|Humvee. They built hundreds of thousands of those things from the
|80s onward and you can go buy one from government surplus shops
|pretty quickly. Getting parts for a Detroit Diesel V8 seems
|easier than a GE turbine especially on a helicopter that has 2 of
|them. I imagine the cost to keep them running isn't cheap once
|they finish scavenging the broken ones.
|u/TurkeyBLTSandwich - 1 month
|
|Eh, I mean China LITERALLY has a clone of the Black Hawk
|Helicopter, so i'm sure there's some interchangeable parts with
|it's Chinese clone. Plus as a sign of good faith China could
|have sold the Taliban some parts. But just a quick check, the
|Chinese call it the Z-20 which they got in the 1980's.....
|u/Stonedfiremine - 1 month
|
|Agreed, even if taliban couldn't make, repair or source more
|parts specifically for black hawk. I'm sure china is more than
|willing to help get a handful running in exchange for whatever
|they desire. Based on how taliban treats woman, I imagine no
|price is to high!
|u/octopornopus - 1 month
|
|>  in exchange for whatever they desire. Unrestricted
|access to the vast mineral wealth underneath Afghanistan?
|u/Stonedfiremine - 1 month
|
|Ding ding! And it's right under Ahmads land that his
|family has live on for years. Guess taliban will frame him
|as an American supporter now so they can take his land
|u/Stonedfiremine - 1 month
|
|Black hawk introduction began in 1979, meaning it's 45 years
|old. It's also used by 30+ countries around the world with a
|total of 5000+ built. With this long a service life, afgans able
|to scavenge off other black hawks they have, it being so
|numerous since introduction and so many conturies having them.
|Makes sense they can keep a handful running. Even if they
|couldn't get parts, im sure they can get help from other
|countries to keep them in the air. Afgan is a male dominated
|society and it's no surprise they flex their muscles with
|military power, you bet your sweet ass they want to look strong
|on miltary parades. Being able to fly around at a parade doesn't
|speak anything about reliability of these vehicles in real
|combat. Ive heard they dont actually use most of these vehicle
|in real combat and most pics ive seen of taliban miltary is them
|on foot or in hummvees (rarely) when doing combat operations. Ty
|for coming to my Ted talk
|u/GG-VP - 1 month
|
|Btw, I think they became so popular was because US started mass
|pumping them out for some war, and when it ended they say that
|they had more than they needed and started selling it to
|everyone, right? Well, either way, the Humvee is definitelly a
|good vehicle in fighting both China and super generalised arabic
|rebel armies.
|u/akiva23 - 1 month
|
|That just highlights how crappy the humvees are
|u/eeke1 - 1 month
|
|Us left behind over 10k so they can cannibalize them for a long time.
|u/ShadyLogic - 1 month
|
|My sources say they left behind 47 Humvees, where are you getting
|10k?
|u/FortuitousAdroit - 1 month
|
|The report provided to Congress indicated 12,000 Humvees were left
|in Afghanistan. >Over 40,000 of the total 96,000 military
|vehicles the US gave to Afghan forces remained in Afghanistan at
|the time of the US withdrawal, including 12,000 military Humvees,
|the report states.
|https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/afghan-weapons-left-
|behind/index.html
|u/zeusmeister - 1 month
|
|Well, that report right there says that these humvees are mostly
|the ones that were given to the Afghan government. Saying they
|were “left behind” implies US soldiers abandoned these during
|the withdrawal or something, which is not the case.
|u/VonCrunchhausen - 1 month
|
|They’re just humvees, not some secret weapon only America has. you can
|get bootleg parts from China just fine.
|u/lundz12 - 1 month
|
|All you have to do is kick the tires and write no faults found on the
|5988e. I don't get what's so hard.
|u/NarcolepticTreesnake - 1 month
|
|We're literally sending the Taliban $40-80M a week right now
|u/DangerouslyCheesey - 1 month
|
|The fearsome combat power of 3 unarmed transport helicopters, a handful
|of hummers with zu-23s, and a bunch of cargo trucks. Even mediocre
|Iranian drones are clearing that column out in a few hours.
|u/no_one_likes_u - 1 month
|
|You fool, our biplanes will never be able to get past these
|insurmountable defense! /s
|u/Apprehensive_Name876 - 1 month
|
|SEND IN THE CANOES WITH SLINGSHOTS!
|u/MetriccStarDestroyer - 1 month
|
|3000 Toyotas of Allah
|u/RobsHondas - 1 month
|
|Never forget the Toyota War of 1987
|u/anon-mally - 1 month
|
|our planes are not bi, they fly straight!!
|u/iWish_is_taken - 1 month
|
|You must have missed the late model Toyota Hilux. That thing will win
|you the war all by itself!
|u/iWish_is_taken - 1 month
|
|No sarcasm at all… those things battle tested and tough as shit!
|u/Turddydoc - 1 month
|
|First thing I thought was that looks like a killing field for a drone.
|u/MandalsTV - 1 month
|
|Yeah idk why so many people are so pressed about the US leaving shit
|behind. They act like we left squadrons of attack helicopters, tank
|battalions, etc.
|u/Zadow - 1 month
|
|Because it's a convenient boogeyman and an effective image to use
|against anyone proposing pulling out of future failed invasions.
|u/Icy-Bicycle-Crab - 1 month
|
|It's cope.  Basically, a bunch of people didn't like that the US
|was still in Afghanistan after all this time, so they called for and
|supported bringing the troops home. Then when they got what they
|wanted some of those people had their nationalist feelings hurt,
|because they perceived the very thing that they had advocated for as
|being an affront to their idea of the nations power. So to cope with
|their hurt feelings they deflect blame onto the person who did the
|thing that they wanted to happen, and they pretend that there was
|some imaginary better way to withdraw from a hostile landlocked
|country.
|u/awake30 - 1 month
|
|The US Military: we lose that much shit in the couch cushions.
|u/Vashta-Narada - 1 month
|
|And JD Vance vows to find them all…
|u/RonStopable88 - 1 month
|
|Yeah i just rush xbows if i need to take out a civ. Modern units are t
|worth the hammers.
|u/BleuBrink - 1 month
|
|They achieved strategic victory over the Americans.
|u/JustIgnoreMeBroOk - 1 month
|
|*Left to the Afghan National Army, intentionally. Which then folded like
|a wet rag and surrendered it all as soon as Taliban showed up. FTFY
|u/AFalconNamedBob - 1 month
|
|That's an insult to wet rags mate
|u/SnipingTheSniper - 1 month
|
|Americans stopped using Humvees like 10 years before the pullout. I
|never saw any Americans using any or saw any in our possession. They
|gave Afghans a bunch of old ones already and they'd been using them
|for awhile before the ANA folded.
|u/Lorbmick - 1 month
|
|That was equipment the former Afghan army left for the Taliban as it
|fell apart.
|u/bdubwilliams22 - 1 month
|
|Trump followers won’t mention the difference.
|u/The_Coxer - 1 month
|
|Legitimate question, do you think a better withdrawal would have
|would have given the Afghan government a better chance of not being
|ousted so quickly? Personally I think our government knew what the
|outcome would be and did it anyways.
|u/nibbles200 - 1 month
|
|There were zero options that include the success of the Afghan
|government with a US withdrawal. The US has been trying to get out
|for years and preparing the government to take over with very
|little success. There are books written on why this was a failure.
|I’m not saying Afghan could never self govern just that it would
|take a generational change and honestly a permanent US defense
|base. I honestly don’t understand why we couldn’t maintain a
|permanent presence, like we have in most every ally country.
|Slowly bring up Afghan National resources and wind down US but
|always maintain a long term presence of some kind. That full
|withdrawal was negotiated by trump and if Biden had backed out of
|it we would be looking at a restart of the fights fought since the
|late 90s. A US nationalist movement threw away billions of dollars
|investment and thousands? of US servicemen’s lives and all the
|efforts and gains to build a stable ally.
|u/qqggff11 - 1 month
|
|It was always hopeless. Afghan people simply don’t have a
|concept of country in the same way we do. They have zero loyalty
|to some government set up in a distant city. Theres just nothing
|that actually makes Afghanistan a country other than some
|arbitrary lines on a map drawn by foreign powers
|u/Parenthisaurolophus - 1 month
|
|I recommend you read that article that interviews some of the
|former Taliban while they complain about things like having to
|learn to code and how they have to concealed carry due to the
|immense amount of crime. There is an urban population in
|Afghanistan and they're not a monolith with the theocratic
|rural population.
|u/qqggff11 - 1 month
|
|Kind of irrelevant. 80% of Afghanistan people live in rural
|setting. They really only have 2 “modern” cities
|u/BlackGlenCoco - 1 month
|
|We couldnt keep a permanent base cause Afghanistan wasnt an
|ally. Never was.
|u/tressless458 - 1 month
|
|What more do you want we were there for over two decades lmao.
|u/A_Naany_Mousse - 1 month
|
|>I honestly don’t understand why we couldn’t maintain a
|permanent presence, like we have in most every ally country.
|Pretty much all of our ally countries where we have bases are
|modern, advanced economies and societies. Japan, Korea, Germany,
|Italy are some of our largest troop presences overseas. None of
|those countries are governed by tribal chieftans and warlords. 
|u/itscool222 - 1 month
|
|It would've helped if the previous administration included the
|afghan government in the peace talks. Also not agreeing to a
|specific date of withdrawal. It was absolutely terrible diplomacy
|and it backed the current administration into a corner.
|u/_Eucalypto_ - 1 month
|
|There's a couple issues here. The withdrawal was already set in
|motion under Trump. Biden inherited it and ran out of stalling
|time Two, any withdrawal that didn't involve a miraculously
|brokered peace deal with the taliban would have resulted in the
|collapse of the Afghan rump state. The state had no support and no
|control over its own military. Once the checks slowed down, the
|Afghan military walked away or switched sides
|u/smol_boi2004 - 1 month
|
|People think geopolitics and conflicts are good vs bad but it’s
|rarely the case. The afghan government was a rotting corpse
|being forced to stand by pumping money into it, and regardless
|of what deal we made with the taliban, the complete and total
|collapse of the government was a matter of time. And being the
|only leftover military force in the country, who else would
|takeover the country? I agree wholeheartedly that the
|occupation lasting as long as it did was a terrible thing, but
|fact remains that staying there longer wasn’t helping matters
|and was only delaying the inevitable
|u/Electronic_Ad5481 - 1 month
|
|I read somewhere that as far back as 2005, Analysts had been
|saying turning Afghanistan into a democracy wasn’t going to
|happen. The government was too corrupt and the Taliban just
|regulated themselves to being the countries most powerful street
|gang that also ran an insurgency. They were just waiting for the
|US to leave before they came back. Heck, when the CIA
|masterminded the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, they had NO
|plans to stay. It was supposed to be a smash and grab job: smash
|the Taliban, grab Bin Laden, then get out and leave what’s left to
|the Northern Alliance.  But then we didn’t get Bin Laden. 
|u/Open-Oil-144 - 1 month
|
|Your government (and the afghan) didn't know the outcome. Trump
|cut several backroom deals for territory with the Taliban that
|favored them by a lot.
|u/Rdhilde18 - 1 month
|
|The ANA would hide half the time a TIC happened. They were as
|likely to shoot you in the back as they were to actually do their
|job. They had no motivation or inclination to fight, ranks were
|riddled with corruption and taliban sympathizers. The AUP were
|even worse. They had nothing to fight for. There was no loyalty to
|some centralized ‘democracy’ they never had before, no national
|loyalty like we have in the West. To them living to see tomorrow
|was more important than keeping their country out of the hands of
|the barbaric people who wanted power again. Why would they care?
|It affects the women more than it affects them. Not like them
|being ‘military’ made them more sympathetic to the horrible
|treatment of women, children, and girls. Which is sad because
|anyone who worked with the ANA Commando Corps knows those dudes
|gave everything they had and then some. They could have a MASCAL
|one day and would be rucked up and ready to go the next day. Many
|of them continued fighting after the Taliban took back over, with
|limited success from what I understand. But hopefully they made it
|north.
|u/KarachiKoolAid - 1 month
|
|There was zero chance of the Taliban not taking over regardless of
|what happened
|u/Silent_Village2695 - 1 month
|
|Tbh I would've liked Trump more if he'd pulled out of Afghanistan,
|even if it had gone exactly the way it did. I'm so sick of 20 years
|of hearing about this country we had no business being in, in the
|first place. Too many Americans died, for what? To bring democracy
|to people that couldn't be bothered to defend themselves THREE DAYS
|after we left? Our soldiers should've been at home with their
|families, not dying in a desert for no good reason. If it was
|revenge for 9/11, sure, but that was Saudi Arabia, and we never even
|crossed their border. Bush got us into that mess, and it took 3
|administrations before someone had the balls to pull us out, even
|knowing the political fallout would be bad, because there was no
|easy way to rip that bandaid off.
|u/needlestack - 1 month
|
|"Left Behind" makes this a misleading post. It's not like Americans
|walked away from these vehicles. These were given to the Afghan
|government as part of nation building. The Afghan government collapsed
|and the Taliban got everything of theirs: the buildings, the people, and
|yes, whatever military equipment they had. Most of it was American
|hardware.
|u/ConsequenceThen5449 - 1 month
|
|Good luck getting parts
|u/Get-Degerstromd - 1 month
|
|The big narrative when this happened was that they couldn’t possibly
|keep any of that equipment running for very long. It’s been 3 years,
|and I see at least a dozen various military grade vehicles functioning
|in this pic. It seems they’re getting parts from *somewhere*. In all
|reality they are just not using any of it, and robbing parts from the
|ones that break down right?
|u/hallese - 1 month
|
|Hundreds were left behind, they can keep at least some vehicles
|running for years.
|u/ConsequenceThen5449 - 1 month
|
|I’d assume yes they are just robbing parts. From that picture seems
|like they didn’t get anything worth while (old humvees and shitty
|helicopters). It probably cost more money to get that stuff out than
|it was worth. At any rate it’s not like they are gonna invade
|another country with it.
|u/hazed-and-dazed - 1 month
|
|The Iranians are still flying the Tomcats sold to the Shah in the
|70s.
|u/tob007 - 1 month
|
|I remember that. I was like uhhh, have you guys seen how long they
|keep gear going in those countries? they will find a way. All this
|stuff will be running LONG past our gear is scrapped\\aged out.
|u/Get-Degerstromd - 1 month
|
|There are still US made F-4 Phantom II jets in military service in
|Iran Greece and Turkey. Production stopped on those in 1981.
|u/XyogiDMT - 1 month
|
|Exactly, I think they’re a lot more resourceful than most people
|give them credit for. People talk about how prohibitive the costs
|would be to fix them but they may not even be buying anything to
|keep them running. I’ve seen videos come out of the Middle East of
|guys rebuilding engines roadside with only hand tools and others
|showing them pulling crude oil straight out of the ground and
|refining it over basically a campfire.
|u/moozekial - 1 month
|
|The scope of your "very long" is off. Very long as in 10 years it
|will all be junk.
|u/Get-Degerstromd - 1 month
|
|Yeah I distinctly remember people speculating that within 6 months
|most of these things wouldn’t be running because maintenance on
|them is *hell*. Not saying they were wrong about most of the
|vehicles. But clearly they’ve maintained some of the equipment
|they…. Ahem…. Repossessed.
|u/moozekial - 1 month
|
|Ya most of it won't be running but anyone saying that didn't
|think about how they could salvage parts from not working ones
|to maintain a small fleet of vehicles and aircraft for years.
|But just like with Iran and their f14s eventually they will run
|out of parts.
|u/MysteriousAMOG - 1 month
|
|The Chinese Communist Party will ensure all that equipment runs
|forever. It's for propaganda at this point.
|u/No-Preparation-4255 - 1 month
|
|7 HMMWV's and only 3 Black Hawks are the only American equipment
|shown here. Everything else you see are Russian/Soviet and Chinese,
|including the Zis anti-airguns and the whitewall tires on the
|HMMWVs. Presumably they bought the majority of what is shown here.
|I think the big narrative was completely correct. I don't know how
|much more confirmation there could be. Would it seem truer if it
|were 3 HMMWV's?
|u/hosefV - 1 month
|
|That's not difficult
|u/abraxasnl - 1 month
|
|When you have 200 of something, those are the parts. You can use X%
|and strip down the remaining Y% for maintenance.
|u/MeetingHistorical514 - 1 month
|
|China and UAE are their allies. They’re getting parts from either.
|u/_wisky_tango_foxtrot - 1 month
|
|This is inaccurate. The vehicles and weapons were purchased by the US
|and NATO allies for the Afghan Army that immediately surrendered and
|never fought the Taliban.
|u/GuitarSingle4416 - 1 month
|
|That is false. That equipment was the property of the Afghan government,
|owned by them. Anything owned the US military and they wanted to take
|back... they did. What the US didn't want back...they spiked....so bad
|that the scrappers were bitching about it being useless. The government
|collapsed under Trump's timetable.
|u/Macktheattack - 1 month
|
|What is spiking?
|u/GuitarSingle4416 - 1 month
|
|Destroying the equipment, but specifically, putting explosive in the
|barrel of a artillery piece, tank barrel. Ect. And blowing it or
|melting it.
|u/nilgiri - 1 month
|
|Some guy on eBay selling a tank with a blown up barrel: Gently
|used, perfect condition! No refunds.
|u/OkFineIllUseTheApp - 1 month
|
|No low ballers I know what I have
|u/Cheef_queef - 1 month
|
|Killdozer didn't need a barrel and neither do I!
|u/VociferousReapers - 1 month
|
|I personally saw a video from someone on the last plane out. There
|was a giant hole. Giant. Filled with military equipment and it was
|just burning. They destroyed what was left.
|u/i_should_go_to_sleep - 1 month
|
|Yeah it really pissed the Taliban off because that wasn’t part
|of the deal.
|u/TheFBIClonesPeople - 1 month
|
|I wonder if it's like at work when they order too much food, and
|you're the last one there, so they let you take a whole box
|home. Like if they were just going in the trash anyway, could
|you take a box of grenades home?
|u/Evening_Jury_5524 - 1 month
|
|Probably what it sounds like. Like stabbing a football when you
|leave the park so nobody else can use it.
|u/Neven87 - 1 month
|
|3 Blackhawks, 8 Humvees, and deuce and a halfs? Sounds like what we
|leave everywhere
|u/onionwizard9 - 1 month
|
|Sounds like a single airstrike removing this entire parade.
|u/Kronos1A9 - 1 month
|
|This is not US equipment at all. It all belonged to the AAF and ANA.
|u/Crazyjackson13 - 1 month
|
|it was owned by the afghan government but okay
|u/Dumbitdownforme - 1 month
|
|They know that, probably. They are trying to create a narrative.
|u/calvin43 - 1 month
|
|Thank you Donald for negotiating the release of the Taliban top brass
|for nothing in return.
|u/GogglesPisano - 1 month
|
|And for inviting those terrorist fucks to Camp David as if they
|weren’t responsible for thousands of US casualties.
|u/Too_Screws - 1 month
|
|It was Afghani equipment.
|u/Kronos1A9 - 1 month
|
|Afghan, afghani is money
|u/Too_Screws - 1 month
|
|You’re correct. I make mistakes.
|u/abraxasnl - 1 month
|
|*Shakes fist
|u/soalone34 - 1 month
|
|Which American tax payers paid for
|u/Texas12thMan - 1 month
|
|A few years ago, they tried to fly a US Blackhawk after showing off what
|the U.S. “left behind”. Guy crashed and died, killed a few others.
|https://v.redd.it/tpbcfd1tahn91
|u/jed-eye_or-dur - 1 month
|
|All thanks to Trump!
|u/Captainfartinstein - 1 month
|
|Yeah, not really our fault. We gave some of it to the Afghan military to
|defend against the taliban. Obviously they didn’t want to do that.
|u/JustMy2Centences - 1 month
|
|Imagine if Russia overran Ukraine and started parading western
|military equipment around in similar fashion. Sort of seems like what
|happened here, except Afghanistan sort of just gave up.
|u/SnackyMcGeeeeeeeee - 1 month
|
|Ukraine didn't get western equipment until later... weird comparison
|lol
|u/Tidorith - 1 month
|
|It's a very weird comparison. Ukraine is the one who was invaded
|here. It'd be more like Ukrainian resistance fighters toppling a
|Russian implemented government system 20 years from now and then
|parading around Russian equipment used by the Russia-friendly
|government(s)
|u/Guns107 - 1 month
|
|I'm so glad I went on 10 deployments missed years away from my family
|and got ptsd for this.
|u/Ok-disaster2022 - 1 month
|
|If it's any solace, while the US were there  Schools were built and
|girls were eligible to go to school, who would never been eligible if
|you weren't there.
|u/ScrewAttackThis - 1 month
|
|Building schools, hospitals, and roads was my unit's mission in
|Afghanistan. It all sounds good on paper but the reality is that the
|schools and hospitals often went unused because there weren't
|doctors, nurses, and teachers to staff em. We actually got pushed
|to build roads more than anything because they were way more likely
|to be completed in a single deployment, and wouldn't necessarily go
|unused. Although I doubt a lot of the roads are in good shape now.
|And as a caveat, "build" is a stretch. It was all contracted out to
|locals and our engineers managed the contracts. Which often saw
|things being torn up because they weren't structurally sound or
|built to any sort of standards (so we were at least avoiding paying
|for shoddy work). This was all back in 2009 and it was pretty
|obvious back then how things were gonna end up. Wild amounts of
|corruption, the ANA were useless, and every few years the approach
|to our handling of the country would change wildly. Hell by the mid
|to late '10s, the Taliban already had a shadow government up and was
|unofficially running large deaths of the country.
|u/Forsaken_Panda3787 - 1 month
|
|And as I was saying in my reply to another person on this chain,
|we never invaded Afghanistan nor intended to stay for humanitarian
|reasons. We were there for only one reason: to get Osama. Not even
|the Taliban were our enemy until they refused to hand him over.
|The whole war was a waste
|u/lifegoodis - 1 month
|
|That was was a complete waste, and only succeeded in making the
|Taliban's hold over Afghanistan even stronger than when we
|arrived in 2001. Finding bin Laden was somewhere between a
|police action and commando action and the military invasion was
|pointless.
|u/Forsaken_Panda3787 - 1 month
|
|Right
|u/Sometypeofway18 - 1 month
|
|And it lasted for 20 years. Unfortunately we imposed that culture by
|force. Enough of the population there doesn't want girls going to
|school or gay people to be allowed to exist. The only way to get
|them to adopt to Western values is to occupy them. It was never
|going to turn into Germany or Japan post WW2 happy ending
|u/Boiscool - 1 month
|
|The only way to get them to adopt western values would have been a
|few generations of occupation. I wish we would have, but with our
|political system, I never thought we would. I knew Afghanistan
|would be a shit show if we left anytime in the next 30-40 years,
|but that is just so unfeasible that I never really entertained the
|idea.
|u/chotchss - 1 month
|
|Maybe if we went all in and stayed for 50-100 years. Otherwise,
|we should have just taken the Taliban's deal for Osama.
|u/_Eucalypto_ - 1 month
|
|What did you think you were deploying to Afghanistam for?
|u/Outside_Taste_1701 - 1 month
|
|[https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2022/10/13/trump-
|ordered-rapid-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-after-election-
|loss/](https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-
|congress/2022/10/13/trump-ordered-rapid-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-
|after-election-loss/) Just want to remind everyone who is responsible
|for this picture
|u/poopypants206 - 1 month
|
|People forget about this
|u/UralRider53 - 1 month
|
|The weapons belonged to the Afghan military.
|u/Thanato26 - 1 month
|
|Afghan Militsry Vehicles captured by thr Taliban when they seized power.
|u/mikel313 - 1 month
|
|According to general Milley no US equipment was left behind. Everything
|that belonged to the US was either taken out or destroyed. The US
|equipment that the taliban has is from the Afgan government. So who
|writes this garbage. Get the fa t straight.
|u/jthon - 1 month
|
|I am of the understanding that these weapons were left for the Afghans
|to protect their people with. The biggest crime is that the US
|government trained these fights to take control of their defense and
|final negotiated with the Taliban to surrender the country back to them.
|While many branches of the government struggle in the first ever non
|peaceful transition of power in our nations history after the lost
|election, few manifested itself as a bigger issue than the US military
|withdraw negotiated by the previous administration. Trump always wanted
|a parade, consider this the very parade he wanted negotiated by Mark
|Meadows.
|u/kadargo - 1 month
|
|Just remember that it was Trump who negotiated with the Taliban for our
|withdrawal from Afghanistan.
|u/masteeJohnChief117 - 1 month
|
|And he released all of the Taliban leaders for a peace deal that fell
|apart within a week. The art of the deal!!!!
|u/TrumpsBoneSpur - 1 month
|
|Trump: never a dictator or terrorist organization he won't suck up
|to
|u/kadargo - 1 month
|
|A true masterclass.
|u/2wedfgdfgfgfg - 1 month
|
|Good, we needed to get out of there.
|u/drb00t - 1 month
|
|not true at all. these were property of the Afghan government. just
|another part of Trump's great deal.
|u/Desperate_Ambrose - 1 month
|
|Is it, in fact, "left behind"? A great deal of U.S. equipment was given
|to the Afghan Security Forces before the Mango Mussolini ordered
|everyone out on short notice to make Biden look bad.
|[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-taliban-arsenal-military-
|equipment/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-taliban-arsenal-
|military-equipment/)
|u/Empty-Discount5936 - 1 month
|
|After freeing the Taliban leader and 5000 of his fighters from life
|sentences and handing them the country.
|u/Jprieto84_ - 1 month
|
|They should have went with Toyota.
|u/nananananana_Batman - 1 month
|
|There's still one in the front - Toyota pickup
|u/Squirrel_Master82 - 1 month
|
|Who could ask for anything more?
|u/dirty-E30 - 1 month
|
|Not with these new Tundy motors sending rods through the block!
|u/SpongeBob1187 - 1 month
|
|Where are the us military vehicles?
|u/johnr1970 - 1 month
|
|It's stuff we left behind for the Afghan military to defend itself.
|Obviously we trained the Afghan military.
|u/BoltThrower28 - 1 month
|
|I know they’re not doing proper PMs on those.
|u/litifeta - 1 month
|
|FFS. Surely you can do a better AI than this. What a crappy childish
|attempt
|u/mick601 - 1 month
|
|I went to YouTube and watched taliban Parade, and it looked nothing like
|this, and the salute wasn't happening either. Equipment painted other
|colors, too.
|u/fauxregard - 1 month
|
|All of the equipment in this photograph is part of the reason our
|politicians tell us we cannot afford to have publicly funded healthcare.
|u/BeKindBabies - 1 month
|
|Trump negotiated with terrorists - this could be the cover of a new
|edition of The Art of the Deal.
|u/Greycloak42 - 1 month
|
|We created them. The Taliban were formed by members of the Afghan
|mujahideen that we trained and armed to fight against Soviet incursion.
|u/beatlebum53 - 1 month
|
|People forget Bin Laden was shooting at the range with US troops. A+
|rating on creating our own enemies.
|u/Greycloak42 - 1 month
|
|Yes, this is something that the U.S. excels in.
|u/CondescendingShitbag - 1 month
|
|*"Blowback—a term the CIA invented to describe the likelihood that
|our covert operations in other people’s countries would result in
|retaliations against Americans, civilian and military, at home and
|abroad.”* -Chalmers Johnson
|u/Buddiechrist - 1 month
|
|Ok, so maybe we helped create some enemies, but it’s not like, we
|helped Saddam Hussein? Or had some sort of missile crisis involving
|Iran? Or helped overthrow Irans previous government in favor of a
|religious extremist government we thought we could control? Or
|helped Saudi “Royalty” maintain power even thought they actively
|manipulate oil prices. Oh and it’s DEFINITELY not like 15 out of 19
|terrorists responsible for 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia! But hey,
|one thing that definitely didn’t happen, was the absolute explosion
|of war and conflicts caused by all our destabilization around the
|world to the benefit of arms manufacturers and dealers. Thank god
|president Eisenhower was just a nervous Nelly warning about some big
|scary military industrial complex. Dude was probably a draft dodger
|with bone spurs who knew nothing about war.
|u/SeveralTable3097 - 1 month
|
|The US played no role in the over throw of the Shah and the
|Islamic Revolution in Iran. You’re confusing the Islamic
|revolution and the 1953 coup. Your point stands though because the
|US creates the conditions for the islamic revolution with the 53
|coup, but there was a 30 year period in between. The US,
|Kissinger specifically, helped arm the IR against Sadam in the IIW
|after the Embassy crisis. This was despite Iraq having been a long
|term US ally under Sadam.
|u/A_Vandalay - 1 month
|
|As were the multiple other tribal groups and most everyone who opposed
|the Taliban and fought against them when they tried to take power.
|mujahideen is a catch all term for any of the groups who fought the
|Soviets. Statements like yours are untrue and gloss over a huge amount
|of complexity.
|u/mage1413 - 1 month
|
|lol "left behind"
|u/verbosechewtoy - 1 month
|
|Just watched Guy Ritchie's: The Covenant. Fucking disgraceful how we
|treated the translators who collaborated with the US military.
|u/blastcat4 - 1 month
|
|Do they even have enough spares and parts to maintain the Blackhawks and
|keep them flightworthy?
|u/CaptainCAAAVEMAAAAAN - 1 month
|
|Source?
|u/HobbesMich - 1 month
|
|Afghanistan police and army equipment....not left behind.
|u/sorean_4 - 1 month
|
|I’m pretty sure some of the Afgan pilots switched sides as soon US left
|the country.
|u/Organic-Echo-5624 - 1 month
|
|Equivalent to driving a 90’s car in 2024
|u/Internal_Raspberry41 - 1 month
|
|THE TALIBAN IS **BUILDING BACK BETTER**!
|u/SenatorPardek - 1 month
|
|you mean captured from the collapsed afghan army
|u/letsseeitmore - 1 month
|
|Not left behind, afghan “military” folded like a house of cards.
|u/Steelo43 - 1 month
|
|This picture looks to show 30 or so vehicles and 3 helicopters. They
|have had 3 years to retrofit and restore various excessed equipment.
|This is due to the Trump plan for leaving Afghanistan.
|u/LongjumpingChain2983 - 1 month
|
|Thanks a lot Donald Trump Making back door deals with the Taliban My
|brother died for nothing
|u/GoldAppleU - 1 month
|
|This is not true, it was mostly Afghani military equipment
|u/MahnHandled - 1 month
|
|Yes, because you see, the US military uses white walls on their Hummers.
|yeah this picture tracks. ![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|disapproval)
|u/SnooPandas1899 - 1 month
|
|it was already paid for long ago by the REPUBLICAN backed contractors
|back in early OIF/OEF. US taxpayers paid (inflated prices) for that
|equipment long time ago. They inflated prices, and the Republicans got
|kickbacks. frankly, we should be surprised they're "servicable" at
|all, and haven't entirely rusted out by now. \*\*\*\*\* Decades later,
|Trump negotiated this "great" withdrawal with our enemy, the taliban,
|(DOHA agreement) without regard to how it would play out. sheer
|incompetence, that has now put us at risk. for a guy like Trump who's
|all about image, how could he paint us in such a bad light ? the world
|has noticed, and some players have already moved chess pieces against
|us. Trumps decisions really made us look like fools. this showed
|weakness, and the putin pounced, and started incursion into ukraine.
|increased military/war necessitates fuel, hence fuel prices
|correspondingly go up. whats why gas is near/over $4/gallon. Thanks
|Trump.
|u/UrBigBro - 1 month
|
|All made possible by Donald Trump and the exit plan made before Biden
|took office. Trump negotiated the surrender of Afghanistan to the
|Taliban without even including the Afghan government.
|u/Jaxn99 - 1 month
|
|Why does everyone forget this? Trump started that debacle yet skates
|free from any blame. How?
|u/drifters74 - 1 month
|
|And yet people blame Biden
|u/Empty-Discount5936 - 1 month
|
|This was a result of Trump's surrender to the Taliban. They belonged to
|the Afghan government that collapsed due to Trump's surrender deal.
|u/MrKomiya - 1 month
|
|American manufactured military equipment abandoned by the National
|Government of Afghanistan*
|u/Striking-Evidence-66 - 1 month
|
|Absolutely false. Our operational equipment came with us the rest was
|destroyed. Maga bs
|u/CellinisUnicorn - 1 month
|
|Next time, we install the self-destruct mechanism.
|u/idoooobz - 1 month
|
|The white walls on HMMVs makes them instantly superior.
|u/Whosebert - 1 month
|
|thanks trump
|u/thatguy11 - 1 month
|
|3 whole helicopters left
|u/SkyeMreddit - 1 month
|
|It’s what we gave to the actual Afghan government and they fled. Not our
|own military leaving it at bases like many blame Biden for.
|u/Practical-Pickle-529 - 1 month
|
|Right. Just another propaganda post for Trump. 
|u/Boiscool - 1 month
|
|You say left behind, but the US military destroyed most of the equipment
|they used. The equipment the Taliban has were given to the Afghan
|National Army. It was no longer our shit.
|u/duzkiss - 1 month
|
|Do any of you do your homework on this matter? These weapons in their
|hands were BOUGHT BY the Afghanistan government during the war. Our
|weapons that were left there were made to lack functionality. It was
|said when TRUMP scheduled our withdrawal and under Biden, the withdrawal
|took place. The fear that we gave them FREE weapons is propaganda and
|by spreading it, you are no different than the lie itself.
|u/mikerichh - 1 month
|
|It’s not our fault the people we trained for decades to use equipment
|folded overnight and didn’t try to fight to keep their guns and
|equipment
|u/WoTpro - 1 month
|
|Thanks Donald for annoucing a specific date for a withdrawal so Tsliban
|could prepare in advance
|u/kaptainkooleio - 1 month
|
|Jesus they put Soviet ZPU’s on American Humvees.
|u/UralRider53 - 1 month
|
|And replaced the drive train with soviet engines, just like they do in
|Cuba.
|u/Moose5846 - 1 month
|
|What was left behind was made unusable by the leaving troops. What
|you’re seeing is the equipment that was purchased from the US government
|by the afghan government.
|u/Liquidwombat - 1 month
|
|Not quite. Anything of a sensitive nature that was left behind was
|made unusable, but we did leave a ton of usable Humvee’s some usable
|aircraft and a bunch of usable weapons but when you stop and think
|about it for a moment, you’ll understand why. What happened to Russia
|and Afghanistan? What happened to the United States Afghanistan?
|What’s gonna happen in the not too distant future when it sites on
|Afghanistan? The equipment we left is just gonna make chinas life
|more difficult.
|u/Affectionate-Net-707 - 1 month
|
|Trump's withdrawal deal with the Taliban, take over Afghanistan in 2020,
|cause chaos for Biden administration, didn't work.
|u/PosterAnt - 1 month
|
|They can thank trump for that
|u/LithiumAM - 1 month
|
|You’re a fucking idiot if you blame Biden for this. We “left this”
|behind for the ANA. The military didn’t just drop a bunch of shit on the
|ground and leave. This is not up for debate. If you want someone to
|blame, how about the guy who was so determined to get a withdrawal at
|any cost for the glory of being the one who did that he surrendered to
|the Taliban in February 2020. Releasing 5000 Taliban prisoners and not
|including the Afghan government in the initial negotiations
|u/NCHouse - 1 month
|
|We left them for the soldiers there, who immediately gave up
|u/Zebra971 - 1 month
|
|This is the equipment the US backed Afghanistan military was supposed to
|use to hold off the Taliban. Tump gave in to the Taliban in his deal
|to get US troops out of Afghanistan.
|u/Kronos1A9 - 1 month
|
|OP knows nothing about operation Resolute Support and it shows. Click
|bait from a moron.
|u/Desecr8or - 1 month
|
|Thanks, President Trump.
|u/LovethePreamble1966 - 1 month
|
|Was this part of the kickback deal between grandpa trump and the
|Taliban?
|u/blueskysahead - 1 month
|
|Trump brought the taliban to the US for a meeting to pull out
|of Afghanistan. 
|u/jobager75 - 1 month
|
|‚Left behind‘ is Trump speech. This was given to Afghanistan government
|to avoid Taliban getting back to power. The plan failed. One of the
|major reasons: Trump released 5.000 Taliban prisoners with NOTHING in
|exchange.
|u/edgeofsanity76 - 1 month
|
|They fly now?
|u/CptCheerios - 1 month
|
|Where are the rollerbladers????
|u/Rdhilde18 - 1 month
|
|They already had those helicopters or at least the ANA did, same with
|the Humvees. ANA either used those or some tricked out TaTas.
|u/Alert_Print3027 - 1 month
|
|All of our dead men and women…literally died for nothing. Nothing but
|lies, oil and an attempt to have some say in the balance of power in the
|region. They did not die protecting our freedom. They died for the
|Republican Party and at the hands of a people who saw them as unwanted
|occupiers. None of them should have ever been sent to fight such a war.
|Had they not gone, ISIS would have never materialized. It was our
|presences and meathead brutality that created the disdain and animosity
|that created ISIS and radicalized so many. Maybe we can learn something
|from all of our dead and those walking amongst us who left parts of
|themselves in the region. Hoping we do.
|u/OneLeagueLevitate - 1 month
|
|This is the way they want it, well they get it.
|u/Repulsive_Memory4262 - 1 month
|
|This looks like a mission for an A10 go brrrrrrrrrrtt
|u/Plastic-Ad-5033 - 1 month
|
|Ah, the unmitigated successes of the War on Terror. That shit worked out
|beautifully. Anyways, I’m sure Palestinian terror groups will be wiped
|out militarily any day now, any day…
|u/mjskc114 - 1 month
|
|It's already been 3 years?
|u/MajesticEngineerMan - 1 month
|
|I’m surprised those choppers can still fly without maintenance.
|u/hollywood20371 - 1 month
|
|Stop upvoting this idiots picture. This isn’t the taliban lol
|u/Robthebold - 1 month
|
|That’s enough the Afghan Army could have resisted more…
|u/Reluctantly-Back - 1 month
|
|Is that a Ford fuckin' Ranger?
|u/Nova_HiveMind - 1 month
|
|Looks like they have gathered all their prizes together. It would be a
|shame if they all blew up.
|u/BiZender - 1 month
|
|Missed opportunity for a MOAB. M-M-M-MONSTER KILL-KILL-KILL!!!!
|u/Turtlepower7777777 - 1 month
|
|Fight a war for 20 years to replace the Taliban with the Taliban, 2.3
|TRILLION well spent!!!!! /s
|u/OldKitchen7902 - 1 month
|
|![gif](giphy|dCFjd3noTEMJQb70ei)
|u/DjNormal - 1 month
|
|As a former Blackhawk crewchief. I’m actually pretty impressed they’re
|able to keep those flying. They look like alpha models, which I didn’t
|think could use the HIRSS, so maybe they’re limas. 🤷🏻‍♂️
|u/eydivrks - 1 month
|
|Assuming they made the photo as impressive as they could... A few dozen
|trucks and three helicopters is militarily useless.
|u/noflew - 1 month
|
|That’s our stuff!!
|u/willyboi98 - 1 month
|
|Better equipped than Russian Army lmao
|u/ARC-170enthusiast - 1 month
|
|Lools like they finally figured out how to fly the helicopters after
|crashing…what like 4 of them? Hope theyre overthrown by the people of
|afghan
|u/MyBuddyBossk - 1 month
|
|![gif](giphy|KCC92tfiS2uML5Z7aj|downsized)
|u/Salty_Amigo - 1 month
|
|So this is how the Russians felt when they left.
|u/UW_Ebay - 1 month
|
|And they know how to maintain all this hardware lol?
|u/lazyboozin - 1 month
|
|I never deployed over there but this one still hurts
|u/seansecurity - 1 month
|
|Helicopters go down and to the right, they don't like to go straight up
|they are very difficult to fly
|u/candylandmine - 1 month
|
|All of those vehicles all together like that, seems like a wasted
|opportunity for the US to correct a mistake.
|u/Xanchush - 1 month
|
|Funny thing is, I wouldn't put it past the Taliban to sell all the
|military hardware to China or Russia so they can reverse engineer.
|u/Cheetah0630 - 1 month
|
|Bullshit. That equipment barely worked while we were there. No way it’s
|still running after 3 years.
|u/michaltee - 1 month
|
|That’s super badass actually.😂
|u/Whoohon-Flu - 1 month
|
|Without American parts and experience to maintain, none of it is useful
|in a battle. Let’s not take about the billions of dollars worth of war
|machines that joe gave them.
|u/feijoa_tree - 1 month
|
|All that military money that could've helped average Joe America.
|u/robistarsolar - 1 month
|
|![gif](giphy|LXLgiN2R8YMtdwalWu|downsized)
|u/GeebusNZ - 1 month
|
|I mean, it's a grand display and all, but... what purpose does it serve?
|Is this a display of the future of the country? Is it a way of honoring
|the people? To me, it seems like a bit of pageantry to make these people
|feel like they've achieved something in their life.
|u/zombiescorn - 1 month
|
|Thanks again Potato president.
|u/sik_dik - 1 month
|
|just so folks know, military hummers (HMMW-Vs) don't use keys to start
|the ignitions. they're just a little lever you toggle. so, like, if
|anyone wanted one, they could just go to Afghanistan and steal it. don't
|forget to let the glow plugs heat up first, though
|u/pics-moderator - 1 month
|
|jeffers0n_steelflex, thank you for your submission. It has been removed
|for violating the following rule(s): --- - Rule 5: Posts must follow
|all [title guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/titles). ---
|For information regarding this and similar issues, please see the
|[rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/index/) and [title
|guidelines](/r/pics/wiki/titles). If you have any questions, please
|feel free to [message the moderators via modmail.](https://www.reddit.co
|m/message/compose?to=/r/pics&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20remova
|l%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/jeffers0n_steelflex&message=I%20hav
|e%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission
|.%5D%28https://redd.it/1es7php%3Fcontext%3D10%29)
|u/bluelifesacrifice - 1 month
|
|This was all the stuff left for the Afghan military. But you can thank
|Republicans for this mess. Trump worked with the Taliban including the
|free release of Taliban prisoners with a rushed and poorly planned
|withdrawal of American forces after losing the election and basically
|set Biden up to fail. The terms were so bad that Biden strong armed
|the Taliban to give US Forces more time to organize and leave.
|u/Dad_a_Monk - 1 month
|
|For those who just listen to Republican talking points. None of these
|are equipment that we left behind... These are all military vehicles
|that were sold to the Afghan government when they were our allies. When
|the Taliban overthrew the government they took over those assets. We
|left nothing functional behind. They might have been able to strip a few
|parts off of those salvage Blackhawks but that's about it.
|u/Tman11S - 1 month
|
|The US military destroyed all their own stuff as they pulled out, so
|they won’t have access to anything recent. Also, never forget it was
|Trump who ordered the US retreat our of nowhere, it was Biden who was
|left to clean up the mess.
|u/ittechboy - 1 month
|
|I don't know this kind of looks like it's AI generated to me.
|u/Mastasmoker - 1 month
|
|Thanks for that wonderful deal, Trump. It's a fucking kick in the balls
|for all OEF Veteran's and the Afghanistani people.
|u/SpaceXmars - 1 month
|
|So cute, we would wipe that out in no time
|u/Best-Cartoonist-9361 - 1 month
|
|It was nice if the US calibrated by carpet bombing this location.
|u/notananthem - 1 month
|
|The US has been funding Afghanistan since the 50's and arming radical,
|repressive religious zealots through Pakistani intelligence sources
|since the 70's until today. The CIA gave money and training to radical,
|fringe Islamic jihadists (the US version of jihadists) directly. They
|force countries in the middle east to release radical, fringe Islamic
|jihadists including al Quaeda leadership. That arming, training and
|money directly created factions within the mileau of the mujahadeen that
|are now known as the Taliban and al Quaeda. This is a US being shitty
|problem.
|u/A_Hideous_Beast - 1 month
|
|Stop, you're not allowed to point out how our fight for "democracy" is
|like, 80% usurping the governmenrs of less developed countries and
|making them fight among themselves leading to a hatred of the U.S and
|destabilization of nations that happen to have resources we don't.
|You'll get banned from Worldnews
|u/bowlbinater - 1 month
|
|A bunch of equipment that would have been more costly to ship back than
|make anew, and is all outdated by at least 20 years anyway? Okay...
|u/skot77 - 1 month
|
|We removed all the good tech from the vehicles/aircraft we left, it
|would all be in scrap heap if we brought it back because we want new
|equipment and wartime equipment is never retained. This is what you
|call right wing propaganda, even though Trump is the one who negotiated
|the exit from Afghanistan. Good luck getting replacement parts when
|shit breaks down.
Response: application/gopher-menu
Original URLgopher://gopherddit.com/1/cgi-bin/reddit.cgi?view&1es7php&pics&10
Content-Typeapplication/gopher-menu; charset=utf-8