As Kabul Fell, U.S. Watchdog Wrote Sad Coda to a 20-Year Failure
- $1 trillion in U.S. spending undercut by shifting strategy
- Inspector General’s report presaged collapse of Afghanistan
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The chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan was 20 years in the making, a key congressionally mandated watchdog agency concluded just days before the government’s collapse to the Taliban on Sunday.
The nearly $1 trillion in spending by the U.S. since late 2001 was hobbled by a shifting American strategy, Afghan corruption, unsustainable projects and a failure “to understand the Afghan context” after decades of war, according to a report Tuesday by John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or Sigar.