Pic of the Day: Afghan Taliban Heading to Pakistan Border in American M1117 Guardian Vehicles

Would someone please tell me why we didn’t deny the enemy and destroy all of our military equipment when the powers that be decided to “pop smoke” and leave Afghanistan?

Anyone? Anyone?

Yeah, I have no clue either.

But it does give us a photo opportunity. Today, we have a photo of what appears to be several American M1117 armored security vehicles heading toward the border of Pakistan to continue their ongoing border skirmishes.

Flying the white Taliban Flag. Image Credit: The US Sun

Taliban in an American pickup trying hard to look like us. Image Credit: The US Sun

A parade of American Humvees driven by the Taliban. You get the point. Image Credit: The US Sun

The featured photo tells a blunt story. Taliban fighters cruising an Afghan highway in American M1117 Guardian armored vehicles. The same beige boxes built to keep U.S. troops alive now carry Afghan Taliban troops in a spectacle that is part victory parade, part war souvenir. The question is not whether gear and equipment were left. It is how much, what kind, and why we did not torch the lot on the way out.

What Was Left

By the Pentagon’s own watchdog accounting, about 7.12 billion dollars’ worth of U.S. funded military equipment remained in Afghanistan when the Afghan government collapsed in August 2021. That sum came from gear previously transferred to Afghan forces over many years. When Kabul fell, it stayed put, and much of it ended up in Taliban hands.