'Since 2001, the United States has spent $2.26 trillion in Afghanistan, the Costs of War Project at Brown University calculates – an investment that has yielded a chaotic, humiliating end to America’s longest war.'
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The US spent $2 trillion in Afghanistan, August 16, 2021
'Sopko also had harsh words about the US government, describing bureaucratic disarray, counterproductive military and civilian personnel policies and practices that led to “one of the most significant failures of the mission”: billions of dollars “wasted” on unsustainable institutions and infrastructure projects.''
Special inspector general says United States officials failed to ‘implement a coherent strategy’ over 20 years in Afghanistan.The United States “struggled to develop and implement a coherent strategy” in Afghanistan and the overall picture there is “bleak”, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a report (PDF) released on Tuesday.
John Sopko, the special inspector general, wrote that any gains “in life expectancy, the mortality of children under five, GDP [gross domestic product] per capita, and literacy rates” during the years-long US mission were not “commensurate with the U.S. investment or sustainable after a U.S. drawdown”.
After 20 years and $2 trillion spent, President Joe Biden is withdrawing all US troops by August 31.
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Tuesday’s report accuses US leaders of not fully comprehending Afghanistan’s political dynamics and said their priorities were influenced by their own politics.
“U.S. officials prioritized their own political preferences for what Afghanistan’s reconstruction should look like, rather than what they could realistically achieve,” the report said.
“U.S. officials created explicit timelines in the mistaken belief that a decision in Washington could transform the calculus of complex Afghan institutions, powerbrokers, and communities contested by the Taliban.”
Sopko also had harsh words about the US government, describing bureaucratic disarray, counterproductive military and civilian personnel policies and practices that led to “one of the most significant failures of the mission”: billions of dollars “wasted” on unsustainable institutions and infrastructure projects.
“The U.S. government did not understand the Afghan context and therefore failed to tailor its efforts accordingly,” the report found. “Ignorance of prevailing social, cultural, and political contexts in Afghanistan has been a significant contributing factor to failures at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.” '
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Watchdog describes litany of US failures in Afghanistan mission, August 17, 2021
Context'For starters, Americans are sick of this war and mainstream media warmongering.''Thus, as in medieval Europe, Afghanistan has a tradition..' - '..a failure to study Afghan realities.''..not through endless military deployments..' - Biden