This is why the kiddie sniffer lost $84 billion in materiel in Afghanistan and is depleting many remaining items in the Ukraine, in addition to depleting the strategic petroleum reserves, as well as starting a trade war with China when (thanks to the treason of most in DC) the US is no longer self-sufficient in oil — let alone in most other items including antibiotics.
Pretty much nothing that was left behind in Afghanistan or is being used in any numbers in Ukraine is at all relevant in a naval war vs China.
Think about it.
The principal issue in a war in East Asia is about controlling the air and sea. If the US and allies lose that, ultimately Taiwan is lost.
Ground combat on Taiwan is moot.
[This is why the kiddie sniffer lost $84 billion in materiel in Afghanistan]
https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2021-07-30qr-appendices.pdf#page=9
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-10/54219-oco_spending.pdf#page=20
Basically, most of it was spent on payroll and transportation (airlifts and payments to Pakistani truck drivers, Taliban tolls, et al), with about $7b consisting of actual hardware. Much of the hardware is light infantry vehicles of the kind we’re handing to Ukraine, but not much use near the front lines in a peer or near-peer conflict. As of 2016, it came to 208 aircraft (Russian and US utility choppers and prop CAS aircraft); more than 42,000 pickup trucks; more than 22,000 Humvees; nearly 9,000 MTV cargo and transport trucks; nearly 1,000 mine resistant ambush protected vehicles; nearly 200 M113 tin cans; and hundreds of thousands of rifles, pistols, machine guns, grenade launchers, rocket propelled weapons and night vision goggles.
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-17-667r.pdf#page=11
Note that these are consumables. Equipment wears out in rough terrain, gets totaled, blown up, shot to pieces, etc. Given Afghan maintenance capabilities, I suspect much of it was inoperable after Biden withdrew the foreign maintenance contractors months ahead of the final departure of US troops.
I don’t blame GOP pols for using the $83b number as a talking point. It’s possible they don’t actually know or haven’t personally looked into it. The Democrats lie far more egregiously, and about things closer to home. But the fact is the real number is something like $18b if we assume transportation costs are zero (unlikely in Afghanistan’s rugged terrain, complicated by the fact that it’s landlocked), and much of it is pretty mundane stuff.