Letter to the editor: Facts about weapons in Afghanistan

If I give something to you and you misuse it or transfer ownership to another, your actions aren’t my fault and I shouldn’t be blamed. I’m responsible only for my own actions.

Such is the case when, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, millions of dollars worth of military equipment ended up in the hands of the Taliban, an American and Afghanistan enemy. Unfortunately, misinformation about how this happened has appeared in letters to the editor as writers misstate or ignore facts.

It is almost never written in these letters that the terms of the withdrawal were negotiated by the Trump administration, leaving President Biden’s Pentagon to carry out the mission. Unfortunately the withdrawal was poorly handled by Biden’s team and deserves some criticism for how the mission was executed.

However, the previously agreed-to deal provided that military equipment, paid for by American taxpayers, was to be turned over to the Afghanistan government, not to the Taliban. That decision, to leave weapons and other material behind, was done in part because it was less costly than shipping it elsewhere and, most importantly, to provide the Afghans with the means to continue their fight against the Taliban. It wasn’t possible to know, when the original deal was negotiated, that the Afghans would surrender to the Taliban and turn over what American fighting forces had left behind to the ultimate benefit of the enemy.

As the late U.S. Sen. Pat Moynihan was fond of saying, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.”

Glenn R. Plummer

Unity