Why has the market share of American weapons in the illegal arms trade increased so much?

Take a look at old newspapers or magazines. Or look for old news on the internet. You will see that in the past, all terrorist organisation militants, wherever they were in the world, usually carried old Soviet-era (Russian) weapons.

These weapons are (Avtomat Kalashnikova) AK-47 or AK-74 infantry rifles, PK (Pulemyot Kalashnikova) machine guns and (Ruçnoy Protivotankoviy Granatamyot) RPG-7 anti-tank weapons. 

Now look at any recent picture of a terrorist organisation militant. You will see that this situation has completely changed. For example, if you look at the pictures of the militants of Al-Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS, PKK and its Syrian branch PYD, you will see that almost all of them are carrying American weapons instead of Soviet-Russian weapons.

The main reason for this is that the weapons left behind by the US during its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have fallen into the hands of terrorists. At least that is what US officials say. However, as in the case of the PYD, not all of these weapons were captured by terrorist organisations, some of them were given to them by the American army itself.

However, the weapons that are said to have fallen into the hands of terrorist organisations due to American incompetence are much more than the weapons that the US military deliberately gave to terrorist organisations.  However, according to the reports of the US authorities, it is understood that much more weapons are missing than the weapons that the terrorist organisations have somehow captured. In other words, there are weapons that have not yet fallen into the hands of terrorist organisations and whose whereabouts are unknown.

The losses are the weapons given to the security forces and armies of the puppet administrations established in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a 2017 report, between fiscal years 2003 and 2016, the US military gave approximately 599,690 infantry rifles, more than 7,000 machine guns and more than 20,000 grenades to the Afghan National Army. Together with those given to the Iraqi government, the number of rifles exceeds 1.5 million.

These weapons started to be lost from the very first days of their distribution due to theft, illegal sale and capture by terrorists during conflicts. Over time, almost half of the 1.5 million weapons provided to Iraqi and Afghan security forces have been lost.

There is no doubt that the largest part of these weapons fell into the hands of the Taliban. Indeed, photos of Taliban fighters advancing rapidly towards Kabul after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which were published in the press and social media, show that most of them are carrying American weapons.

Moreover, when the Taliban dismantled the puppet Afghan government and took over the whole country, they seized the weapons in the warehouses of the Afghan security forces (army and police), as well as many planes, helicopters, artillery, armoured vehicles and small arms left behind by the US during its withdrawal.

The capture of these weapons by the Taliban turned the US defeat in Afghanistan into a disappointment. However, the weapons and vehicles that were not captured by the Taliban are considered to be more important for the US. Since some of the pilots took refuge in neighbouring countries along with the aircraft, it is certain that some of them have fallen into the hands of China and Russia. 

This situation carries the risk of copying the technologies of weapons and vehicles for the USA. Although this situation is bad for the US, it is not so important for regional stability in Afghanistan and its neighbourhood. However, the situation with small arms is quite different. 

Not all small arms have fallen into the hands of the Taliban. Most of the soldiers and policemen fleeing from the disbanded Afghan army and security forces probably took their weapons and went to their villages. Some weapons were smuggled into the arms market to be sold to terrorist organisations in the region and around the world. 

The same is true for the weapons given to the Iraqi security forces. When ISIS captured many cities in Iraq, it also seized the warehouses of the army and security forces. In Iraq, those soldiers and police officers who managed to escape took their weapons with them. When ISIL disintegrated, its militants did the same.

This has made it impossible to stabilise Afghanistan and Iraq (and even Syria) for many years after the US withdrawal. This is because any terrorist organisation, present or future, will never have a shortage of arms and ammunition. 

Moreover, the missing military equipment does not only consist of infantry rifles and machine guns. A large number of UAVs, drones, night vision goggles, radios and grenade launchers given to Afghanistan and Iraq as US aid are also missing. 

In conclusion, after the attacks of 11 September 2001, the US has not been able to achieve this in any of the places it has occupied with the claim of ending terrorism; on the contrary, the millions of weapons, equipment, ammunition and materials it has left behind have created a suitable environment for terrorism to exist and become chronic in the future. 

The only thing the US has managed to achieve in Afghanistan, Iraq and even Syria is to capture the illicit arms trade, which used to be dominated by Soviet-Russian-made weapons. Terrorist organisations have become the biggest buyers of US weapons in the illicit arms market. In other words, a market has been created in Afghanistan and its surroundings and in the Middle East for the weapons that the US army is going to remove from its inventory. 

This situation raises the question: "Did the USA distribute so many weapons to the region deliberately and not out of ignorance?". Because the volume of illegal arms trade can reach quite high amounts.