Biden gave the Taliban $7 billion. Obama armed ISIS. Trump lost planes over Iran — and got every pilot back.
By Michael Phillips | Riptide Analysis
The debate over American military equipment losses has returned to the headlines this week after a dramatic rescue operation deep inside Iran, and it’s worth doing what Washington rarely does: put the numbers in honest context.
When critics talk about “leaving equipment behind,” they almost always mean one of two catastrophic episodes — both of which happened on someone else’s watch. What happened Friday over Iranian airspace was something categorically different.
The $7 Billion Handoff — Biden, Afghanistan, 2021
The U.S. gave a total of $18.6 billion in equipment to Afghan security forces from 2005 to August 2021. Of that, $7.12 billion worth remained in Afghanistan after the withdrawal was completed on August 30, 2021 — including aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, and communications equipment.
It is now in Taliban hands.
The inventory reads like a Pentagon wish list in reverse. The haul included $923.3 million worth of aircraft, over 40,000 military vehicles, and more than 300,000 weapons. Nearly all communications equipment, night vision gear, biometric devices, and explosive ordnance disposal equipment were also left behind.
And the downstream consequences are still unfolding. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction concluded that U.S. taxpayer-funded equipment, weapons, and facilities left behind have “formed the core of the Taliban security apparatus.”
The Biden administration’s preferred talking point — that this was Afghan government equipment, not U.S. military gear — is technically accurate and strategically irrelevant. Taxpayers bought it. America’s enemies have it. No destruction. No recovery. Straight to the Taliban — roughly twenty times the value of everything deliberately transferred out of Iraq a decade earlier.
The $80-billion figure that circulated politically is wrong — that’s the total spent on Afghan forces since 2001, not equipment value. The real number is damning enough without inflation.
ISIS Got a Bonus Too — Obama, Iraq, 2011 and After
The Iraq story is messier, and more defensible — at least at the point of withdrawal. The 2011 drawdown was orderly and treaty-mandated, set by a Status of Forces Agreement negotiated under President George W. Bush. Rather than ship everything home at enormous cost, the Obama administration deliberately transferred roughly $350–400 million in equipment — vehicles, generators, logistics gear — to Iraqi Security Forces. Documented, cost-justified, and reasonable on its face.
But the downstream consequences were not reasonable. When ISIS overran Mosul in 2014, those forces fled — leaving behind 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles, at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, 74,000 machine guns, and up to 52 M198 howitzer systems. U.S.-funded equipment, originally transferred in good faith, captured by America’s enemies because the partner force America built couldn’t fight.
It is a lesser indictment than Afghanistan — the abandonment happened one step removed, through a collapsing ally rather than directly at the airfield. But the pattern is the same: equipment provided under Democratic administrations ended up in hostile hands, at scale, because the strategic judgments underpinning those transfers were wrong.
The Hierarchy of Loss
Not all equipment losses are equal. There’s a meaningful difference between deliberate transfers, combat losses, and abandonment — and the numbers reflect it starkly.
At the bottom of the ledger: Trump’s losses over Iran this week. An F-15E was shot down in a shooting war, an A-10 was damaged while supporting the rescue, and two MC-130Js were deliberately destroyed by American hands to deny them to the enemy. Hardware lost or expended in combat, zero personnel lost, both pilots recovered. That’s war.
In the middle: Iraq, 2011. Roughly $350–400 million transferred deliberately, some of which later fell to ISIS through a collapsed partner force — a downstream failure, not an abandonment at the point of withdrawal.
At the top: Afghanistan, 2021. $7.12 billion in U.S.-funded military equipment — aircraft, Humvees, weapons, night vision, communications gear — left in a country whose government ceased to exist before the last American plane departed. Straight to the Taliban. No destruction. No recovery.
Three presidencies. Three outcomes. One abandoned a war. One transferred gear in an orderly exit that had catastrophic downstream consequences. One lost planes in combat — and then went back inside a hostile country twice to bring its people home.
The dollar amounts tell you which was which.
What Trump Lost — and How
An F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down by Iranian forces during Operation Epic Fury, triggering an immediate combat rescue mission. An A-10 Warthog supporting the search and rescue operation also took fire, was damaged, and its pilot ejected over the Persian Gulf.
During the rescue of the second crew member, two MC-130J aircraft experienced mechanical issues — they allegedly became stuck in mud — and became stranded inside Iran. U.S. forces deliberately destroyed the planes to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands. Iran’s state media published footage of the wreckage, showing charred remnants of the MC-130J aircraft and an MH-6 Little Bird helicopter — all destroyed by American forces themselves.
The distinction matters enormously. This was not equipment handed to an adversary through negligence or a hasty retreat. It was equipment destroyed on purpose, by Americans, to deny it to the enemy. That is the doctrine working exactly as written.
And every pilot came home.
Both crew members of the downed F-15E were rescued in separate special operations missions inside Iran. The CIA launched a deception campaign inside Iran to buy time while locating the missing weapons system officer, who had evaded capture for more than a day in mountain terrain before being extracted.
According to Trump: “We were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded.”
The Real Comparison
The political temptation — especially from the left — will be to list the hardware lost over Iran this week alongside the Taliban’s $7 billion windfall. That comparison doesn’t survive scrutiny.
Biden left a functional arsenal with America’s sworn enemies because his administration botched a withdrawal under no immediate military pressure. Obama’s Iraq policy created the conditions for ISIS to inherit a weapons depot. In both cases, the equipment fell into hostile hands because of strategic and operational failure.
Trump lost aircraft in a shooting war. They went back into Iran — twice — and brought their people home. And then his forces destroyed what they couldn’t carry out.
There is a reasonable debate to be had about whether the Iran campaign itself is wise, proportionate, or likely to succeed. But the equipment calculus is not that debate. Losing hardware in combat while recovering your personnel is the cost of fighting. Leaving hardware on the tarmac while fleeing is the cost of losing.
Washington spent years confusing the two. The numbers make clear which presidents did which.
Riptide covers national security, politics, and accountability journalism.
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