US-Taliban Deal Pushed Afghanistan to Collapse: Watchdog
- Special inspector general cites mistakes in longest U.S. war
- After billions spent, a rapid fall as U.S. withdraws support
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The US deal with the Taliban -- forged under President Donald Trump and implemented under President Joe Biden -- was “the single most important factor” in the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s forces as American troops withdrew last year.
As in Vietnam decades earlier, the US “spent years and billions of dollars training and equipping” the Afghan National Security Forces “only to see them quickly collapse in the face of far less-equipped insurgencies once US logistical, equipment enabler and air support were withdrawn,” John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said in an “interim” lessons-learned report released Wednesday.