Weapons and ammunition given to the Afghan security forces by the United States are falling into the hand of the Taliban.

The New York Times reports:

Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces. …[M]ilitary officials, arms analysts and dealers say it points to a worrisome possibility: With only spotty American and Afghan controls on the vast inventory of weapons and ammunition sent into Afghanistan during an eight-year conflict, poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied.

James Bevan, a researcher with the Small Arms Survey, said that one likely explanation of the munitions find was that soldiers, policemen or interpreters had sold the ammunition for profit, or simply given it to the Taliban for ideological reasons.

The commander of the unit that captured the ammunition, Capt. James C. Howell, said that this type of activity is “not surprising” because of the reputation of corruption in the Afghan forces, especially the police.

Upon checking the serial numbers, authorities found that one of the 10 rifles captured in the raid was issued to an Afghan auxiliary policeman in 2007. The auxiliary police, riddled with corruption, were disbanded last year.

American-issued rifles being diverted to the Taliban in Afghanistan are even reaching Pakistan. “The amd-65, a distinctive Hungarian rifle, was rarely seen in Afghanistan until the United States issued it by the thousands to the Afghan police,” reports the New York Times. “They can now be found in Pakistani arms bazaars.”

Afghanistan is not the only place this kind of thing is happening. American arms given to the Palestinian Authority in the past soon found their way to Hamas, for example.

America is relying on the support of dubious allies to help fight its battles. This is a reflection of its growing lack of national will.

The situation in Pakistan illustrates the potential danger in such a policy. America aids Islamabad militarily. If the Taliban were to take over that country, that aid would end up in the hands of the enemy.

For more on how America is becoming increasingly reliant on dubious allies, see our article “Want Ad: Former Superpower Seeks Foreign Lovers.”