As regions around the world continue to spiral into war, we’re reminded of the event that started it all: President Joe Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
At the time, officials at the State Department, Department of Defense and White House shamelessly claimed the departure was the “greatest airlift in history” as desperate Afghans, including those who helped U.S. troops fight against the Taliban, clung to departing planes on the tarmac in Kabul. Many plunged to their deaths. Countless Americans were left behind, hopelessly trapped behind enemy lines.
After the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, which killed 13 U.S. service members, President Joe Biden still called the withdrawal an “extraordinary success.”
Now more than two years later, the Biden administration is still telling egregious lies about what happened in Afghanistan. More specifically, about what was left behind.
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby was recently confronted about this reality during the daily press briefing.
“Last week, 21 Pakistani soldiers were killed by the weapons that were left in Afghanistan. Was, were those weapons left there or was that a mistake, or was it left intentionally?” a reporter asked. “The 21 soldiers that were killed in Pakistan, the weapons that the Taliban used were the weapons that the U.S. left in Afghanistan, the goggles, the guns…”
“Let me remind you — please, take the opportunity to remind you: We didn't just leave a bunch of weapons in Afghanistan. This is a fallacy. This is a farce. What we did over the course of our 20 years in Afghanistan, of course, with congressional approval and consultations, was armed and helped equip the Afghan National Security Forces,” Kirby responded. “As we have said time and time again, that as the Taliban made advances, those Afghan National Security Forces, many of them decided not to fight but yet to lay down their arms and leave…That’s what was left behind, not that the United States just walked away and abandoned a bunch of weapons in a pile in Afghanistan. That's just not, simply not historically accurate.”
Kirby's claims are a farce.
The U.S. did in fact walk away from not just a pile of weapons in Afghanistan, but piles of weapons. I’ve been told directly by U.S. soldiers who were there that the Defense Department instructed them to abandon entire warehouses packed with weapons from the floor to the ceiling. Endless footage of the Taliban parading around with U.S. equipment proves this reality, as do investigations into the withdrawal.
“The Biden administration’s own DOD – where Kirby used to work – assessed they left behind more than $7B in military equipment. These weapons are now being used by the Taliban to oppress and murder their own people, and according to a recent report are being sold on the black market to terrorists and other criminal organizations,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said in response to Kirby’s claim, citing an extensive Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report. “Kirby’s attempt to cover up this administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is shameful. Statements like this by Kirby only further underline the importance of him finally coming in before this committee for a transcribed interview.”
Billions of dollars in U.S. weaponry, abandoned by the Afghan military and the U.S., is showing up in war zones outside of the country. Not just in Pakistan, but in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The Taliban secured a substantial arsenal of U.S. weapons and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters, after U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021. The Israeli commander with whom Newsweek spoke said some of the U.S. small arms seized in Afghanistan have already been observed in the hands of Palestinian groups operating in the Gaza Strip," Newsweek reports.
Biden’s exit from Afghanistan was reckless and dishonorable. The consequences will haunt the U.S. and the world for decades to come. Shameless lies from the White House about what was left behind will not change this dangerous fact.