Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Pictures
The weapons and navy tools left behind by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, together with by way of the collapse of the Afghan military, at the moment are largely within the arms of the Taliban – and certain different militant teams as effectively. Although many politicians’ and observers’ reactions have been sensationalized, it does spotlight important issues arising from U.S. arms transfers in the course of the two-decade-long Struggle on Terror.
Regardless of U.S. and worldwide efforts to regulate the unfold of navy tools, the U.S. has a protracted historical past of leaving weapons behind and questionable arms transfers. Consequently, U.S. weapons ended up within the arsenals of adversaries in Iraq and Syria, in addition to Afghanistan, even earlier than the U.S. pulled out utterly.
On account of each abandonment and poor monitoring, the Islamic State group, the Taliban and different militant teams managed to amass American-supplied anti-armor weapons, tanks, drones and large numbers of small arms, like rifles, and lightweight weapons, comparable to machine weapons and fundamental rockets.
This tools was usually subsequently used in opposition to U.S. forces or their allies, and typically recaptured after battles.
Weapons proliferation in Afghanistan
For years, the Taliban have been buying U.S. weapons, counting on corrupt Afghan officers and troops promoting U.S. tools, capturing weapons in battle or stealing them in raids. The sudden collapse of the Afghan military offered a uniquely massive windfall.
AP Picture/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi
Most of the extra superior weapons and tools could not show helpful to the Taliban, as a result of they’re too advanced or require particular upkeep – or have been broken or destroyed by U.S. forces earlier than they left.
Nonetheless, easier-to-use high-tech tools, comparable to communications devices and night time imaginative and prescient goggles, will assist the Taliban. A few of this gear has already been utilized by the elite Badri 313 unit as they guarded key websites, such because the Kabul airport.
The Taliban might additionally share their weapons with different militant teams, such because the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaida. These teams are already threatening the safety of individuals throughout the area.
Arms switch failures, safeguards ignored
A number of U.S. authorities applications are geared toward stopping weapons from attending to adversaries. Whether or not run by way of the Protection Division or the State Division, they depend on what is named “end-use monitoring.”
These efforts search to make sure that when different nations’ navy forces get U.S. weapons, they’re stored safe each in transit and as soon as they arrive at their locations. U.S. officers are supposed to assist recipients obtain and retailer the weapons or tools and distribute them to troopers or different approved personnel. These officers are additionally supposed to maintain cautious data of which weapons are transferred to which overseas forces, and monitor them over time to ensure they’re being saved securely – and repair any issues that come up, and even cease the weapons switch from persevering with.
Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Pictures
However proof reveals that many arms transfers to overseas companions in assist of the Struggle on Terror lacked these fundamental end-use safeguards. In a single occasion, beginning in 2007, U.S. officers in Afghanistan took 15 months to arrange the required monitoring system for weapons and tools delivered to the Afghan military. In that point, some tools, together with night time imaginative and prescient techniques, have been misplaced – presumably to the Taliban.
In one other occasion, a 2007 Authorities Accountability Workplace report discovered that navy and different authorities officers in Iraq didn’t know the place large quantities of small arms, gentle weapons and tools had gone. They have been presupposed to have been given to the Iraqi military, however untrained employees and poor distribution networks meant no person had any concept if any of it had really been delivered – or whether or not it was stolen and even misplaced someplace alongside the way in which.
Regardless of navy guarantees to do higher, the issue continues. U.S. authorities audits and investigations have discovered that the safeguard processes weren’t adopted in transfers of drones to the Afghan navy, in addition to numerous weapons transfers to the Iraqi navy and different forces concerned within the combat in opposition to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
If the right procedures had been adopted, they might have at the very least diminished the variety of U.S.-supplied weapons within the arms of the nation’s enemies.
Further protections might assist as effectively. Even earlier than they comply with arms transfers, U.S. officers are supposed to contemplate whether or not their overseas companions can assure that the weapons gained’t fall into enemy arms. However political strain for quick leads to violent conditions and competing strategic priorities continuously imply weapons are given to teams who can’t reliably safe them.
By not following by way of on current accountability and safety procedures, the U.S. has contributed to the teams and conflicts its weapons transfers sought to quell.
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Nolan Fahrenkopf is a analysis fellow on the Heart for Coverage Analysis on the College at Albany, which receives grants associated to nonproliferation from the U.S. Division of State.