(MENAFN) According to a new report released by the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the inability of Afghan forces to function independently before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is largely the fault of the U.S. and Afghan governments. The report suggests that the mistake made was training the Afghan forces to be a "mirror image" of the U.S. forces, requiring a high degree of professional military sophistication and leadership. The Afghan forces lacked these qualities and were not expected to be self-sufficient until 2030, even though the Afghan air force was supposed to be the force's greatest advantage over the Taliban.
Over the course of 20 years, the U.S. invested nearly USD 90 billion in Afghan security assistance, training, and building up Afghan security forces to defend their country against the Taliban. Despite this investment, the Afghan forces collapsed with unexpected speed, leaving the country under Taliban control. The Afghan security system was built on contractors and American leadership, leading to long-term dependencies, according to the report.
One former U.S. commander in Afghanistan told SIGAR that "We built that army to run on contractor support. Without it, it can't function. Game over…when the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up." Afghan security officials referred to the Doha agreement as "a catalyst for the collapse" as the morale of the Afghan security forces degraded. They saw the U.S. handing the country over to the Taliban as it rushed toward the exit, and decades of U.S. training did not prepare Afghan advisers for the situation.
Corruption within the Afghan forces eroded their capabilities, and the Taliban took advantage of their defensive posture to strike supply lines and cause USD 600 million in damage in 2020. Another factor in the fall of the Western-backed Kabul government was the drastic drop in U.S. military support after the Doha agreement. Gen. Sami Sadat, a former commander of Afghanistan's Joint Special Operations Command, said that "overnight…98 percent of U.S. airstrikes had ceased."
Five months before the U.S. withdrawal on August 30, 2021, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani did not believe that U.S. troops would leave within a specific timeframe, and it was only a month after President Biden announced the timing of the withdrawal that Ghani's inner circle recognized the gaps in the training of the Afghan forces. Within four months, Ghani had fled the country, and the Afghan forces had collapsed.
The SIGAR report found that nearly USD 7.2 billion in U.S.-provided aircraft, guns, vehicles, ammunition, and specialized equipment including night-vision goggles and biometric devices remain in the possession of the Taliban in Afghanistan due to poor recordkeeping and lack of oversight of equipment on the ground.
The report warns that the risk of equipment ending up on the black market or in the wrong hands in the huge shipment of military aid to Ukraine is "likely unavoidable." The Defense Department's difficulty in monitoring U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, even before Russia invaded a year ago, was pointed out in the report. However, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl testified during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday that the Defense Department had not seen "any evidence of diversion." The Defense Department provided Ukrainians with tools like scanners and software to track the equipment provided by the U.S.
In response to the SIGAR report, the Defense Department disputed the characterization that the U.S. had not adequately communicated plans to support Afghan forces after the withdrawal, while acknowledging that the findings provided "important insights."
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