Washington: The final report on the 20-year war and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan has been released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. According to the report, the United States allocated $144.7 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction between 2002 and 2021, out of which $137.3 billion was spent.The report states that corruption within successive Afghan governments proved to be the biggest obstacle to reconstruction. Despite spending $90 billion on Afghan security forces, they failed to become self-reliant and collapsed rapidly following the US withdrawal.It further revealed that thousands of ghost employees existed within Afghan security institutions, while fuel and other resources were stolen on a large scale. The US provided Afghan forces with more than 427,000 weapons, 147,000 vehicles, and 162 aircraft. After the withdrawal, military equipment worth $7.1 billion was left behind in Afghanistan.Despite billions spent on counter-narcotics and stabilization programs, the outcomes remained disappointing. The report also noted that more than 2,450 US soldiers were killed and over 20,700 wounded during the Afghan war.The report added that excluding the Afghan government from the Doha talks weakened state institutions. After the withdrawal, the US and global donors provided billions in aid, while the Taliban government continued to impose taxes and levies on aid-funded projects.
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