Trump tells the US to invade and 'bomb the hell' out of Afghanistan if the Taliban doesn't return billions in US weapons and equipment

Former US President Donald Trump has asked the US government to invade and bomb the hell out of Afghanistan if the Taliban fails to return billions in US weapons and equipment.

In a statement issued on Monday, August 30, Trump said: 'Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan.'

'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. 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!' 

As the Taliban took over Afghanistan and the US evacuated, they plundered billions worth of US military equipment, according to reports. US rifles, armored vehicles, helicopters, planes, and other heavy weapons were all left behind.

 

 

This comes after  Taliban fighters were seen posing proudly next to UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters in viral videos.

'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,' National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan admitted earlier this month.

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

 The US sent nearly 76,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons systems and 208 aircraft to the Afghan Security Forces just between 2013 and 2016, according to a 2017 report by the Government Accountability Office. 

 

In the last few years, the Defense Department has sent Afghan forces more than 7,000 machine guns, over 4,700 Humvees, and more than 20,000 grenades, according to a recent Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) analysis. 

Last week, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., a former Navy SEAL, warned that the Taliban now has access to $85 billion of American military equipment. 

'The Taliban now has more Blackhawk helicopters than 85% of the countries in the world,' he said in a press conference. He said the Taliban also had access to biometric devices containing data to track down Afghan interpreters who assisted the US in the war. 

'This administration still has no plan to get this military equipment or supplies back,' Banks said.