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Trump Calls For ‘Unequivocal Military Force’ If Taliban Doesn’t Return American Weaponry

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Donald Trump is calling for the U.S. to use “unequivocal military force” against the Taliban if the terrorist group does not return American weaponry that was left behind by the Biden administration during the catastrophic evacuation.

In a scathing statement, Trump also said the U.S. should “at least bomb the hell out of” the billions of dollars in weaponry and equipment to prevent the Taliban from using it.

“Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Trump said in a statement.

“In addition to the obvious, ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost,” he added.

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“If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it. Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!” he continued.

The Hill reported:

Among the items seized by the Taliban are Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft.

Photos have also circulated of Taliban fighters clutching U.S.-made M4 carbines and M16 rifles instead of their iconic AK-47s. And the militants have been spotted with U.S. Humvees and mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles.

The United States spent an estimated $83 billion training and equipping Afghan security forces over the last two decades.

The Hill report added:

Between 2003 and 2016, the United States transferred 75,898 vehicles, 599,690 weapons, 162,643 pieces of communications equipment, 208 aircraft, and 16,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment to Afghan forces, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report.

From 2017 to 2019, the United States also gave Afghan forces 7,035 machine guns, 4,702 Humvees, 20,040 hand grenades, 2,520 bombs, and 1,394 grenade launchers, among other equipment, according to a report last year from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

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As of June 30, Afghan forces had 211 U.S.-supplied aircraft in their inventory, a separate SIGAR report said.

At least 46 of those aircraft are now in Uzbekistan after more than 500 Afghan troops used them to flee as the government in Kabul collapsed over the weekend.

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White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also admitted the Biden administration does not know where all the equipment has gone and that it’s unlikely they will get it back.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban. And obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport,” Sullivan said.

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