About a month ago, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense posted photographs on social media of seven brand-new helicopters arriving in Kabul, delivered by the United States.

"They'll continue to see a steady drumbeat of that kind of support going forward," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters a few days later at the Pentagon.

In a matter of weeks, however, the Taliban had seized most of the country, as well as any weapons and equipment left behind by fleeing Afghan forces.