Posted on 01/25/2023 6:47:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weapons are on the negotiating table between Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and Afghanistan’s Taliban government, according to at least one insider.
Presidentish Joe Biden’s bungled bugout from Afghanistan resulted in a windfall for the new radical Islamic government, including artillery, attack helicopters, and thousands of HUMVEES, machine guns, radios — all left behind as our orderly withdrawal degenerated into a rout.
The Department of Defense estimates the total value of the gear Biden left behind at a whopping $7.12 billion, and now Putin is reportedly offering to buy whatever he and the battered Russian Army need.
According to The Sun, a report on Telelgram (a social media platform popular with Russian milbloggers) claims:
Putin is overseeing negotiations with the Taliban to recognise the Taliban government. In return, the Russian leadership is offering a major arms and military equipment swap,” General SVR channel wrote.
“Putin reported that the Taliban possess weapons and equipment including those seized after coming to power in Afghanistan, that are scarce for the Russian Army at the front,” it further stated.
The Russian Ministry of Defense hasn’t commented on the rumor.
If I’m reading this correctly, this would be more of a weapons swap than a cash deal. The Taliban would give up its Western gear in exchange for diplomatic recognition and Russian weapons. Undoubtedly, ammo, spares, and replacements for Russian equipment would be easier for the Taliban to get hold of than for the Western stuff they have now.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
The irony
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this. The absolute mindless incompetence of the bunch running DC.
I’ve always said lefties prepare for the unintended consequences, and gee, guess what happened. We will be arming our supposed enemy.
Trying to pass the buck from Biden to Putin.
Now we’re going to arm both sides
No one outwarmongers a libtard
China is probably liking this because they took possession/control of most of those heavy weapons once we left Afghanistan
We are claiming we only left behind $7.12 billion in arms? Is this supposed to be funny?
Isn’t Biden special? Bless his heart.
Russia does not need old, second hand humvees or MRAPS driven into the dirt by Taliban. That is ridiculous
But I can imagine Russia wanting to create a friendly client-state, reliant on their weapons and advisors, on the borders of the their former “stans”
It might be worth that when new, but almost all of this is stuff we left for the Afghani Army.
They ran and left it behind when they ran from the Taliban after their president fled with 200 million dollars.
We should have left back in 2003, latest.
I think there were a ton of MRAPS there. I was involved with developing an anti IED vehicle that was tested in Afghanistan. The amount of work needed to decontaminate it from the local crap it accumulated took a lot of man hours. We never had the personnel to bring stuff back, I think the plan was to leave it for friendly forces (and we all see how that worked out).
they coulda sold it to me
Is this why Bout was traded for Griner? Arms dealing?
More hangover from the “brilliant” move by Biden to withdraw abruptly and endanger lives:
“....the last American troops and diplomats departed the country, which is once again under Taliban rule.
Mr. Biden declared that he believed with “all of my heart” that he had made a wise decision. But he appeared defiant as he sought to counter a torrent of criticism from Democrats and Republicans — and from some families of the service members killed in Kabul last week — for his handling of the withdrawal.
The president refused to offer any sort of mea culpa on Tuesday, even as the Taliban celebrated their “independence” from America with gunfire in the streets of Kabul.
Instead, the president sought to justify his handling of the final weeks of the war, saying that the U.S. military and its diplomats deserved credit and thanks for ferrying out more than 120,000 Americans and Afghan allies in the face of the Taliban takeover and terrorist threats from ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State.
Mr. Biden expressed deep remorse for the loss of lives in the explosions at the airport last Thursday, including scores of Afghans, but he dismissed the argument that his administration should have — or could have — conducted the final withdrawal in a “more orderly manner” by evacuating people earlier, before the Taliban takeover of the country was complete.
From the NY Times,
By Michael D. Shear and Jim Tankersley, August 31, 2021.
I’m stunned, but then again not surprised. I know we left a C-130 in Kabul and disabled it. I read that the Chinese have already repaired it and it’s fully operational now
CNN (!) April 28, 2022:
This equipment is now in a country that is controlled by the very enemy the US was trying to drive out over the past two decades: the Taliban. The Defense Department has no plans to return to Afghanistan to “retrieve or destroy” the equipment, reads the report, which has been provided to Congress.
The US gave a total of $18.6 billion of equipment to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to August 2021, according to the report.
Of that total, equipment worth $7.12 billion remained in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal was completed on August 30, 2021.
It included aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment and other materials, according to the DoD report.
Ten cents on the dollar! Such a deal I have for you!
lots of lolzzz here. But the obvious flea market swap here is Russia sends oil and gas to Afghanistan for artillery and shells/ammunition that are useable in Ukraine.
Biden just amazes me daily/s
And to think that a couple hundred thermite grenades could have rendered those vehicles toast.
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