we did create a fantastically corrupt elite, and thereby perhaps a less governable country. but there is one other thing that our expenditure and effort there built. one other thing we did buy. and that was a huge amount of weaponry. right? weapons large and small. weapons high tech and low tech. military facilities. military vehicles. military bases. that s where a huge amount of our expenditure went. in the end what has become of that? well, some of it we were able to destroy in time, some of it we were able to air lift out in time. but anything that we couldn t destroy or air lift out in time has now become the property of the taliban. including literally u.s. military bases and helicopters and mortars and rifles and grenades and everything. we have just created a very, very, well armed taliban fighting force.
grenades and everything. we have just created a very, very, well armed taliban fighting force. the military, the afghan military we spent all these years building did not want to fight in the end. they walked away. the taliban takeover of the country was not a military takeover. the taliban walked into kabul without firing a shot. the military and the government and all the provincial capitals all surrendered to the taliban or just walked away. in kabul the central government there and the security forces supposedly defending kabul, they did the same just as they did out in all the provinces. the washington post reported in detail on how that came to be over the weekend. you see the headline there. afghanistan s military collapse. illicit deals and mass desertions. the spectacular collapse of afghanistan s military that allowed taliban fight toers walk into the afghan capital sunday despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in american