Washington (EFE) this Tuesday an independent supervisor of the Pentagon.
The US special inspector for Afghan Reconstruction, John Sopko, held a meeting with the press on Tuesday to present a devastating report on the reasons for the collapse of the Afghan troops after twenty years of training and supply of weapons by of the US Army.
The report states that the resolution of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and the current president, Joe Biden, to withdraw US soldiers from the Central Asian country led to a chain of decisions within US agencies, the government of the former chief Afghan state leader Ashraf Ghani (2014-2021) and the Taliban, which accelerated the events of August 2021.
That month saw the collapse of the Afghan security forces and the Taliban seized control of the country, while the US completed its withdrawal at the end of that August. However, the special inspector points out that there were a series of previous problems that predicted this outcome.
“There was no one in charge”
In his conversation with reporters, Sopko stressed that the US spent large amounts of money for the creation of the Afghan forces and the development of the country that were wasted.
He also highlighted the lack of coordination, as there were numerous US agencies involved in Afghanistan with no one to coordinate the joint work: “There was no one in charge.”
He also explained that when someone is in a country “they have to understand where they work”, which did not happen to the US. He gave as an example a phrase he heard numerous times in Afghanistan when US officials told him “Oh, that’s already we did it in Iraq”, which he considered incorrect, because “Iraq and Afghanistan are different”.
“We did not understand where we were, the culture, politics, we did not take corruption into account,” listed the official, who added that the “lack of sustainability” of the Afghan armed forces, which were designed in the image and likeness, was not taken into account either. of the USA
“Let’s hope it doesn’t happen in Ukraine”
The inspector pointed out that the Afghans knew how to handle and maintain Soviet weapons for historical reasons, but the US decided to provide them with American equipment, so at the same time that the American contractors left, it was foreseeable that bodies such as the Afghan air force they were going to collapse.
“Let’s hope this doesn’t happen in Ukraine,” Sopko remarked, referring to the military and humanitarian aid that the US is sending to kyiv to resist the Russian invasion.
In his report, the special inspector criticizes the rotation system of the US forces, since “it was not effective”, given that every few months there was a different person in decision-making positions.
He recalled that US presidents, from George W. Bush (2001-2009) to Biden, have not wanted to stay in Afghanistan and this has caused problems with the schedule established by the US.
“It was an unrealistic timetable for success, success must be measured based on the reality on the ground,” he mused.
Another concern that he includes in his report is the military equipment that the US has left behind when it left: “Afghanistan is known for being the arms bazaar, I don’t know if they will have ended up in the hands of the Taliban”, said.
In short, in the 20 years that the US was in Afghanistan, there was never a “long-term” strategy to create “effective” security forces, because “instead of a 20-year plan, what there were were twenty plans in 20 years”.