A report from a government group watching over how money was spent in Afghanistan says that weapons and equipment paid for by American taxpayers are now being used by the Taliban.
The group, called the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), says that the United States spent around $144.7 billion trying to rebuild Afghanistan between 2002 and 2021. The goal was to make the country stable and democratic, but the report says this didn’t happen.
The report also mentions that when the Taliban took over, the group couldn’t check on the equipment and buildings that were given to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). However, the Department of Defense thinks that about $7.1 billion worth of equipment was left behind.
The report suggests that these weapons and equipment are now being used by the Taliban.
The U.S. military left Afghanistan in August 2021.
The report also points out that the Afghan forces had a lot of weapons and equipment, worth about $511.8 million, when the government fell.
Gene Aloise, from SIGAR, says that many things led to the failure of the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. He says that the U.S. made some bad choices early on, like working with corrupt people, which made the situation worse. He also says that efforts to improve the economy and society didn’t last. Even though the U.S. spent about $90 billion on security, the Afghan forces quickly fell apart when the U.S. military left.
The report says that the Afghan forces depended too much on the U.S. military because they were designed to be like the U.S. forces, which required a lot of training and leadership. When the U.S. decided to leave and cut support, it hurt the morale of the Afghan soldiers and police.
Even though the Taliban took over in 2021, the U.S. has continued to give money to Afghanistan, spending over $3.83 billion on aid.
