Vinton Today

Dear Editor:

The final account of USA military equipment and cash left behind in Afghanistan!

Source: GAO analysis of Department of Defense data.

Just imagine if the US had supplied just 30% of this military equipment to Ukraine.

Thanks to the Government Accountability Office, we now have a clear picture of just how much U.S. military equipment has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, thanks to Joe Biden's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Let's have a look ...

Aircraft: The Taliban now ranks #26 in the world in total military aircraft, thanks to us leaving behind:

98 planes

110 helicopters

60 transport/cargo planes

20 light attack planes

18 intelligence/surveillance planes

We left a total of 75,898 vehicles:

42,604 tactical vehicles

22,174 Humvees

8,998 medium tactical vehicles

1,005 recovery vehicles

928 mine-resistant vehicles

189 armored tanks

599,690 weapons:

358,530 rifles

126,295 pistols

64,363 machine guns

25,327 grenade launchers

12,692 shotguns

9,877 RPGs

2,606 howitzers

Thousands of night-vision goggles, surveillance drones, and communication devices.

Joe Biden just funded an army of terrorists in Afghanistan.

In total, it adds up to nearly $84 billion dollars in tax-payer-funded U.S. military equipment.

Regards,

John Stiegelmeyer

PS: Don’t Forget ‘A ROOM FULL of CASH.’

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IK April 13, 2022, 8:05 pm After reading the comments about Mr. Stiegelmeyer's Letter to the Editor I thought I would fact check the politifact.com web site which comes from the Poynter Institute in Tampa, Florida. The institute is the owner of The Tampa Bay Times newspaper, a venerable newspaper with an ownership structure that "guarantees its independence, a liberal voice on Florida's conservative west coast". PolitiFact touts itself as a nonpartisan fact-checking website. They say their sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes). The reporting is "factual and usually sourced" according to them. I went to the list of their of "most credible" media sources and found they were: PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNBC, BBC, and Politico along with many liberal newspapers. Politico is generally read by a moderate to left-leaning audience according to my research. So you can make up your own minds about how credible PolitiFact's fact-checking is, but after my fact-checking I have to say they certainly don't sound unbiased to me.

GB April 12, 2022, 10:24 pm I could care less about the bickering of what the exact total was. The Fact in point is that it should not have happened. It was the result of pure incompetence from the highest levels of our government. It did not stop there either. Everything this president touches goes to hell in a handbasket. Fuel prices, the southern border and now the clown show actually has Russia negotiating on our behalf with Iran over a nuclear deal! This administration is a disaster and it will get a lot worse...

JS April 12, 2022, 5:24 pm One more thing. If only one military serviceable weapon were left behind that could fall in the hands of Taliban, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea - that could be reverse engineered - is that O.K.? I saw the pictures of blue colored hard shell cases that would contain hundreds of Beretta FS-92 or M-9 9mm semi-auto pistols. If that part of the picture was accurate then it would be mostly true!!!! These are the same type of cases that came with my purchased Beretta FS-92 9mm pistol in U.S. parlance is known as the M-9. What do you say to that Vasques and Braden????

JS April 12, 2022, 5:12 pm If the information is false - sorry I took the tack that it was issued by the GAO and sent to my by a good friend than it was factual. If not my apology.

However, many new sources and commentators have stated we left $85 billion in serviceable military equipment listed in the article mentioned. So instead of saying as one did - mostly false - I must say mostly true. Regards.

NG April 12, 2022, 5:07 pm Lying has become a huge problem for those on the right. I have told John about this before when I called him out for other lies he has passed along. While Trump was in office he told over 30,000 lies and it seems the republican party and followers have picked up this habit. They do no fact checking before they pass things on. If it fits their agenda to make President Biden and the Democrats look bad they believe it with no regard to the harm it can do to this country and its people.

Norma Gould

RL April 12, 2022, 3:15 pm John - I would like to see the link to the actual GAO report. It would certainly counter the argument that this is fake news if the report was issued be the US Govt after the 2021 fact check posted here. But what I really want to know was how much of this was left behind and how much was merely given as aid to the Afghan government that was simply captured by the Taliban when the Afghani government we had been supporting just simply collapsed. If this equipment was in the hands of the Afghani Army, scattered all over the country, I'm not sure how we retrieve it without considerable loss of life.

RB April 12, 2022, 3:14 pm Once again, John, your information is mostly false. Look something up once and cite sources! It’s laughable to read your letters-to-the-editor. If I need a good laugh I try and read them!

SZ April 12, 2022, 2:11 pm I would like to see the information claimed as factual data with sources cited. I enjoy Vinton Today, I certainly don't want it to become another "fake news" distribution. Integrity in writing still counts for something.

Editor's Note: Information on the Opinion Page is submitted by the readers and is signed by them. However, on this issue, after a quick google, here is a Forbes article that I believe is neither right nor left-leaning. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/08/23/staggering-costs--us-military-equipment-left-behind-in-afghanistan/?sh=6f3fb3a241db
I find "fake news" is in the eye of the beholder.

AV April 12, 2022, 10:40 am This information is "mostly false". Here is a critique of it:

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/sep/01/viral-image/claim-overstates-military-weapons-equipment-us-lef/

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