Submission Statement
Between 2001 and 2021, under four U.S. presidents, the United States spent approximately $2.3 trillion, with 2,459 American military fatalities and up to 360,000 estimated Afghan civilian deaths.
After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, approximately $7.12 billion worth of military equipment was left behind, according to a 2022 Department of Defense report. This equipment, transferred to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to 2021, included:
Weapons: Over 300,000 of 427,300 weapons, including rifles like M4s and M16s.
Vehicles: More than 40,000 of 96,000 military vehicles, including 12,000 Humvees and 1,000 armored vehicles.
Aircraft: 78 aircraft, valued at $923.3 million, left at Hamid Karzai International Airport, all demilitarized and rendered inoperable.
Munitions: 9,524 air-to-ground munitions worth $6.54 million, mostly non-precision.
Communications and Specialized Equipment: Nearly all communications gear (e.g., radios, encryption devices) and 42,000 pieces of night vision, surveillance, biometric, and positioning equipment.
The total equipment provided to the ANDSF was valued at $18.6 billion, with the $7.12 billion figure representing what remained after the withdrawal. Much of this equipment is now under Taliban control, though its operational capability is limited due to the need for specialized maintenance and technical expertise.
The United States has provided at least $93.41 billion in total aid to Afghanistan since 2001. This includes:
Military Aid (2001–2020): Approximately $72.7 billion (in current dollars), primarily through the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund ($71.7 billion) and other programs like International Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, and Peacekeeping Operations ($1 billion combined).
Humanitarian and Reconstruction Aid (2001–2025): Around $20.71 billion, including $3 billion in humanitarian and development aid post-2021 and $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan assets transferred to the Afghan Fund in 2022. Pre-2021 reconstruction and humanitarian aid (e.g., $174 million in 2001 and $300 million pledged in 2002) adds to this, though exact figures for the full period are less clear.
Kabul was always a lot more progressive because it's a big city. The rest of the country is a bunch of goatfuckers in the mountains. They think of women as objects. They were pissed off that women were given rights, so they took over. The women who do live in those regions, more than likely supported it - hating on those "liberal" Kabul women. The snake didn't impose the ideology on the Taliban, it (and Pakistan) equipped students of Islam (talibs) to fight communists. These people themselves were already quite nasty. There was an uprising in response to the mandatory literacy program for girls, before the US got interested in them (which was during the soviet intervention)
In the 1970s, when the communist revolution took place, the people of Afghanistan became increasingly restless due to all the reforms. They literally did not want progress. Then in the 2000s, the Americans tried to pick up where the soviets had left off... And as soon as they were gone, the Taliban was back. There was little resistance. Not enough people cared about equal rights. In particular, not a lot of people outside of Kabul, the biggest and most progressive city, cared.
It's all fucked up. Both the Soviet Union and the US tried to improve things, but of course the US and Pakistan funding Mujahideen, out of which the modern day Taliban grew, made it near impossible.
These people, the Talibs, were always anti-progress. They were poor boys who were sent to school, often in Pakistan, to study Islam and become clergymen. In the absence of any real government in poor rural areas, these guys were the closest things to civil servants. In the context of the period and place, you might consider them to be good guys even. But they were always very much fundamentalist muslims, and giving them any power was never a good idea.
You said culture. There culture didn't start when taliban took power and the population isn't against women education they just fear taliban
The united snake and the urss was responsible of the rise of extremism and the civil war that destroyed the army. They didn't care about afghans or democracy that's why they kept a weak army when the usa left and taliban was able to take control again
You just a racist and occupying apologist. Shame on you