A recent report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government watchdog,  has revealed that billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and military equipment that the Americans abandoned in Afghanistan in 2021 are now the main strength behind the Taliban’s security forces.

Set up in 2008, SIGAR is an independent U.S. agency that monitors how American taxpayer money was spent in Afghanistan.

The latest report was released last week. The 137-page-document reviewed the United States’ 20-year mission to rebuild Afghanistan and train its armed forces. According to SIGAR, the U.S. poured roughly $145 billion into Afghanistan’s reconstruction between 2002 and 2021. Much of this money was meant to create a stable, modern security force and support a peaceful democratic government. The report concluded that these massive efforts failed to deliver lasting peace or true democracy in Afghanistan.

Instead, the advanced weapons and hardware left behind ended up strengthening the Afghan Taliban’s repressive regime.

The U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed that approximately $7.1 billion in military equipment was abandoned during the chaotic withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan. This included tens of thousands of vehicles, over 427,000 small arms, night-vision........

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