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.
This shit haunts me sometimes. I remember hearing somewhere that the Taliban actually offered to deliver OBL to the US if they would promise not to invade and we were like “get fucked, idiot”. How many people’s lives did we needlessly destroy, regardless of nationality, both in Iraq and Afghanistan? What else could have been bought besides misery with the nearly four trillion between those two wars?
And we’re supposed to believe these people are smart enough for nukes? I wonder how many of those people can actually read or write?
Is this text AI generated? The civilian death toll in the “submission statement” is about 6x higher than accepted numbers and about 100K higher than all total deaths in the entire conflict.
IMO (AI or not) slop like this just “floods the zone with shit” while doing noting to help the progressive cause.
and the USA claims healcare for its citizens is unaffordable
We’re also cutting Veteran benefits, which has been a recurring thing.
and how long did it take the USA to have a actual Dicktator
You show me a boat filled with dildos made from potatoes, and I’ll show you a dictatorship.
go fly your kite in Non USA countries, good luck with that
Uh, sir? This is a Wendy’s.
0 days
That’s a K/d ratio of 147:1
before that it was the mujahadeen trained by SEALs/special operations, turned taliban.
And yet, I’ve seen people on here criticize the withdrawal. Like, how much longer did you wanna stay, dawg? Another 20 years so the proxy we set up would last another week?
People didn’t criticize the withdrawal itself (at least non-monsters didn’t). People criticized the fact that in so many years there was no robust infrastructure built. They broke whatever was there before them, fucked around for decades, achieved jack shit, and left leaving power vacuum.
People didn’t criticize the withdrawal itself (at least non-monsters didn’t).
I mean, I’m not going to disagree with characterizing these .worlders for example as monsters, but it’s not as if it was a fringe position.
This happened a lot around Afghanistan too.
If there’s one thing both sides love in this country, it’s permanent warfare, provided they can get the poors to do all the fighting and dying.
So many people are “anti-war,” except for the current one.
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Lol. Imperialism is what made Afghanistan today.
Exactly! So not doing imperialism to them is racist.
You have it wrong. Not doing imperialism to them is classism.
Synthesis: race and class are intertwined, not doing imperialism to afghanistan oppresses them on both axes.
My goddamn brother in law, gung-ho air Force dude, is trying to get his Gen Z kids to enlist because it worked out so well for him. He enlisted during the magical late 90s so he wasn’t shipped anywhere. Hardest thing he had to do was pushups and whatever hazing the other soldiers put him through.
I mean yeah, all that, but did you even stop to consider how absolutely insanely wealthy we made like 7 people!?
God you people are so selfish with your wah wah thousands upon thousands have died! Think of the rich people for once!
:P
All right wing religious lunatics must go.
All religious lunatics must go.
The secular ones too
didn’t usa also train the taliban? because they didn’t want ussr to have afghanistan
Yes but actually no. Mujahideen (did I spell that correctly?) were CIA funded as they opposed the Russian invasion.
A lot of former Mujahideen fighters did end up in both Taliban and Al-Quebec (autocorrect tells me that’s the right spelling) after the soviet-Afghan war, including Osama himself. While allied, they are separate entities.
They are allies and with common roots, but saying Taliban was trained by CIA is an oversimplification. Some of its members were, yes, but that was long before Taliban was a thing.
Also, the paragon of Aged Like Milk:
Hahahahahahahhqhahaa!!! Al-Quebec!
The French Canadian province would like a word
So it wasn’t these guys that ended up in Afghanistan somehow?
No. The Taliban only got started after the Soviets left. But the US funded and trained the Mujahedeen which later created Al-Quaeda.
We did.
There’s a whole joke about it in The Boys when the Soldier Boy character is revived.
“That’s why the Taliban is so deadly and effective — hapkido training. Where’d they learn that? From Steven Seagal’s fat ass. Why do you think Kelly Lebrock left him? 'Cause he’s Taliban.”
Adds another ~4 billion to the equation.
I learned 2 important lesson from this.
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You can’t bomb people into liking you.
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Most people don’t give a shit about number 1.
Edit: AutoIncorrect got me.
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Yeah but autocorrect disagreed.
Yes, but sometimes my phone thinks it I went to write different words.
No, I hear you! Just checking…
Yeah. I might be a jackass, but not a cycle path.
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Super Troopers joke about the Taliban warlord was in date, then hilariously out of date, then disturbingly in date again.
Its Afghanistanimation
If the British Empire couldn’t dislodge the Afghanis in the 1800’s, and the Soviets in the 1970’s and 1980’s, why would the USA be able to do it?
“Invade Afghanistan, you will regret it,” is one of history’s NCDish lessons. Like:
- Don’t invade Russia in winter.
- Don’t let Germany get too economically depressed.
- Don’t let the Chinese people get too unhappy with their govt.
Iran feels geographically close enough to inherit the curse for sure.
Because america is special?
I don’t think that’s what they’re after. It’s oil and money somehow at the root, it always is.
It’s Israeli hegemony. The entire point of American conquest in the Middle East is Zionism.
Really? Isn’t it famously petroleum and shipping lanes?
It’s kind of a package deal; Israeli domination of the middle east also means domination of the oil and shipping.
Another facet is just good old fashion military industrial profeteering
Nah. Whenever I see Zionism used as a giant umbrella, I know that person is stirring up shit and/or is antisemitic.
Whenever I hear an inconvenient theory I turn off critical thinking and assassinate the person’s character in my mind
Genetic fallacy
It’s the other way around. Zionism is a tool, not an end goal.
Let’s see how your critical thinking got you to that end result. Show your work.
