Submission Statement
Between 2001 and 2021, under four U.S. presidents, the United States spent approximately $2.3 trillion, with 2,459 American military fatalities and up to 360,000 estimated Afghan civilian deaths.
After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, approximately $7.12 billion worth of military equipment was left behind, according to a 2022 Department of Defense report. This equipment, transferred to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to 2021, included:
Weapons: Over 300,000 of 427,300 weapons, including rifles like M4s and M16s.
Vehicles: More than 40,000 of 96,000 military vehicles, including 12,000 Humvees and 1,000 armored vehicles.
Aircraft: 78 aircraft, valued at $923.3 million, left at Hamid Karzai International Airport, all demilitarized and rendered inoperable.
Munitions: 9,524 air-to-ground munitions worth $6.54 million, mostly non-precision.
Communications and Specialized Equipment: Nearly all communications gear (e.g., radios, encryption devices) and 42,000 pieces of night vision, surveillance, biometric, and positioning equipment.
The total equipment provided to the ANDSF was valued at $18.6 billion, with the $7.12 billion figure representing what remained after the withdrawal. Much of this equipment is now under Taliban control, though its operational capability is limited due to the need for specialized maintenance and technical expertise.
The United States has provided at least $93.41 billion in total aid to Afghanistan since 2001. This includes:
Military Aid (2001–2020): Approximately $72.7 billion (in current dollars), primarily through the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund ($71.7 billion) and other programs like International Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, and Peacekeeping Operations ($1 billion combined).
Humanitarian and Reconstruction Aid (2001–2025): Around $20.71 billion, including $3 billion in humanitarian and development aid post-2021 and $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan assets transferred to the Afghan Fund in 2022. Pre-2021 reconstruction and humanitarian aid (e.g., $174 million in 2001 and $300 million pledged in 2002) adds to this, though exact figures for the full period are less clear.
TBF, withdrawing was a Trump era decision that Joe Biden simply didn’t stop. Trump also released 5,000+ Taliban Fighters just before. I feel like if we didn’t elect people like Donald fucking Trump then the outcome might have been different, it really seems like he was intentionally causing these problems.
I remember Bush had withdrawal plan he started putting in action, then Obama had one, then Trump had one, then Biden had one
At every stage, the US lost more and more territory. By Biden, they’d been hedged into Kabul like the US was backed into Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.
The idea that we could have just camped out and refused to leave was politically impractical and logistically incredibly difficult. And why would we have been there, except to periodically fling bombs into neighboring territory?
We’d lost the war a decade earlier and simply refused to admit it. By Biden, it was a farce. We didn’t control the country in any meaningful way.
They never had control, they outsourced a lot of the fighting to the warlords they paid, without them they would have been thrown out a lot earlier
Trump absolutely didn’t have a plan unless the plan was to fuck everything up.
I’m sure another 20 years would have been enough
As long as it took. They had a democracy, they had international trade, they had human rights. You can’t put a pricetag on that. The USA was protecting something worth protecting for a change.
Around $2.3 trillion.
How hard is it for you to understand they didn’t want your racist violent military or your corrupt puppet regime ruling them?
Afghanistan has international trade now, and not only that but they also manufacture solar panels and other stuff for local consumption or export.
Your comment is a combination of racism, chauvinism and white saviour complex. Worse, you think you are doing good. Even worse, you are eager to do it all over again in another country against its people’s will.
I’m sorry that you’re on the faction opposing women in education, driving, or any form of authority. I’m sorry that you prefer an actual theocratic dictatorship. I’m at a loss that you didn’t notice the immediate tariffs, sanctions, and funds being frozen when they took over.
I’m on the faction of “it’s none of your business how Afghans govern themselves and you have no right to enforce your norms on them”. If the puppet regime had any real support it wouldn’t have collapsed in weeks.
Who placed the tariffs, sanctions and froze the funds? The US government and its allies being sore losers. You may want to take another look at this:
https://www.bakhtarnews.af/en/afghanistans-total-trade-achieves-12-42-billion-milestone-in-2024/
It became their business many times over the decades starting when it became a strategic territory in the proxy wars between the west and the east. Surrendering to authoritarianism might seem like a cool idea until you’ve given up everything and allowed everyone to suffer. Some fights are unavoidable.
How other people govern themselves is everyone’s business. This isnt a difference of opinion it is brutal totalitarianism. People are killed and you hide behind it being a difference of culture. It isnt acceptable. That said the US are shitbags.
I disagree with you on the former and it reeks of white-saviour-complex, but I agree with you on the latter. One out of two, isn’t bad.
Try to meddle in other countries’ business, try to force your norms on them, and you will be met with resistance. If your values are so much better and universal you wouldn’t need to force them on other nations through military and economic coercion.
Edit: I guess you are from the UK. You claim to care about people getting needlessly killed, but if UK troops do it it is okay?: Afghanistan: UK special forces ‘killed 9 people in their beds’
It would not be anyone’s business if they didn’t force their own ways onto innocent women. I would be fine with them living in the stone age, if they didn’t drag others into it by force.
A loss of freedom for one is a loss for all!
My people fought centuries to not fall under the banner of the UK and I can see from my desk the spot where british soldiers shot and killed an unarmed civilian. No I am not british and no I do not support their colonialism or their bending over for the US then or now. Their support for Ukraine is laudable but their support for Israel is embarrassing.
Your position that the correct and moral way of life should suceed on its own is not based in reality. If it was then we would not need trade unions, protests, protections on journalism and free speech etc.
If there existed a house in your neighbourhood that was known to be a crack house, that you could hear the sounds of rape from - would you say that it is their right to do in their homes as they please? Now extrapolate to a global level.
It has nothing to do with race, I am a staunch supporter of Palestine and think the UK, US and Germany are to blame for where it is currently. I support the uprising in Syria despite the issues the leadership poses. Race is too easy to throw around and use an escape.
LOL this guy again, Eglin Airforce Base?
“Being frozen” The US vulgar thieves stole it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/16/afghanistan-money-biden-white-hosue-us
Lmao, that money never belonged to the theocracy.
sure thief
LOL
When the first installed puppet got a bit of remorse when he saw the butchery of the US they replaced him with a literal American, Ghani.
They pulled a reverse Jolani, they made him grow a beard and wear traditional clothes since the locals knew what he was and disliked him.
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/09/02/afghanistan-ashraf-ghani-corrupt/
And same as the US he stole all the money and gold he could get his paws on.
This from a country left in ruins and misery after what the US did.
Democracy my ass.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/16/afghanistan-money-biden-white-hosue-us
LOL cope