No Surprise: Taliban Using US Weapons

The Times Online reports on the duplicitous situation in Afghanistan.

The Taleban have been using rifles and ammunition that were supplied by the US to the Afghan Army, it was claimed yesterday.

Thirty rifle magazines taken recently from the bodies of insurgents killed in battle contained at least 17 rounds that were identical to ammunition that the US had given the Afghan forces, according to The New York Times.

Some of the thousands of M16 rifles supplied to Afghan soldiers to replace their Kalashnikovs have also ended up with the Taleban. M16s were found to have been used in a battle last year in which nine Americans died, The New York Times said.

It's an open secret that the US trained and supplied Afghan military is unreliable.

I'll go further to say, in my opinion, there is almost no doubt that the Afghan militia double deals with the US and the Taliban. The Americans are desperate to set up an Afghan military to do their job fighting the Taliban and they are getting suckered. They supply them arms and no doubt they turn around and sell them to the Taliban. It's very difficult to wage this war and deal with that kind of blatant duplicity.

Meanwhile in Pakistan the Taliban are hijacking US and NATO supply convoys and stealing arms.

What utter madness.