SIGAR identifies six factors that led to the fall of the Afghan government and the return of the Taliban to power.
The United States sought to build “stable, democratic, accountable” governing institutions in Afghanistan, but it failed, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) concluded in a report published on Wednesday.
SIGAR pointed the finger at the US and criticized the former president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who he said had ruled “a large selection, less for loyal people, to disrupt the government at a critical time”.
This is not the first time that the United States has criticized Washington and Ghani for returning to the Taliban. In a report published in May, the observer said that the withdrawal of US troops led to the collapse of the Afghan army, while another report released a few days after the Taliban took over in August 2021 criticized the failure of the US to “establish a coherent strategy” in 20 years. Afghanistan.
The report says the US withdrawal from Afghanistan led to the Taliban regaining control of the country and the migration of foreign workers and workers, along with Afghans working with international aid groups and the US military.
Despite some progress in capacity building, the US has failed to address corruption issues; “recognize the government of Afghanistan through democratic elections; and fully monitor and evaluate the results and outcomes of its efforts”, the report said.
SIGAR identified six factors that led to the downfall of the Afghan government. These included the failure of the Afghan government to recognize that the US would indeed leave, the withdrawal of the Afghan government from the US-Taliban negotiations, which weakened it; The Afghan government insists that the Taliban can be included in the country, and the Taliban’s unwillingness to compromise.
The Taliban took over Afghanistan after an insurgency, which reached Kabul on August 15, 2021 and forced President Ghani to flee the country.
Also, “the deep stability of the Afghan government, widespread corruption, and the struggle for independence have contributed to its downfall,” the report said.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks and after accusing the then-powerful Taliban of harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
US forces quickly occupied the country, but struggled to defeat the Taliban’s insurgent campaign over the next 20 years.
As the war escalates in the US, former President Donald Trump signed an agreement with the Taliban in 2020 to ensure the withdrawal of American troops from the country.
The agreement also stated that the Afghan authorities “prevent the use of Afghan soil by “terrorist” groups or international people against the security of the United States and its allies” and calls for “intra-Afghan dialogue” between the Taliban and the government. in Kabul.
US President Joe Biden, who took office in January 2021, continued with the withdrawal plan, emphasizing that the Afghan army has the numbers, training and equipment to fight the Taliban. But at the beginning of August 2021, as the time for the withdrawal of the US approached, big heads began to fall on the Taliban with little resistance from the Afghan army.
Chris Mason, assistant professor of national security at the US Army War College, was quoted in the SIGAR report as saying, “The US effort to build and strengthen Afghanistan’s governing institutions was a complete, colossal, premeditated failure in terms of those efforts and their consequences in the civil war.” Vietnam, and for the same reasons.”
“The fact that the United States has supported Afghanistan for 20 years and that Afghanistan has depended heavily on foreign aid in its modern history, has made it difficult for Afghan politicians and leaders to imagine a future without this aid,” Mason said. he said.
