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US and Ghani government ‘set the stage’ for the collapse of republic: SIGAR
Washington’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko stated in a report released Monday, that the agency found six short-term factors accelerated the collapse of the Afghan security forces in August 2021.
In his report to Congress, Sopko said first the decision by the United States to withdraw all U.S. military forces “fundamentally changed the behaviors of the United States, the [Ashraf] Ghani administration, and the Taliban (IEA).”
He said many Afghans thought the U.S.-Taliban agreement was an act of bad faith and a signal that the “United States was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country,” he said adding that “its immediate effect was a dramatic loss in ANDSF morale”.
In addition, the change in the U.S. military’s level of support to the ANDSF; the failure to establish a self-sustaining ANDSF; former President Ashraf Ghani’s frequent changes of ANDSF leaders and appointment of loyalists; the Afghan government’s failure to take responsibility for Afghan security through the implementation of a national security strategy; and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) effective exploitation of ANDSF weaknesses, were also behind the collapse of the security forces.
“These six short-term factors worked together to cause the ANDSF’s collapse,” Sopko stated in the report.
He said, in addition, SIGAR identified eight systemic factors that explain why, after 20 years and nearly $90 billion in U.S.
security assistance, the ANDSF was vulnerable to collapse in the first place and ill prepared to sustain security following a U.S. withdrawal.
According to him, these factors were:
The length of the U.S. commitment was disconnected from a realistic understanding of the time required to build a self-sustaining security sector;
No one country or agency had ownership of the ANDSF development mission;
Advisors were often poorly trained and inexperienced for their mission, while frequent personnel rotations impeded standardization, continuity of effort, and institutional memory;
The lack of effective interagency oversight and assessment programs prevented a clear picture of reality on the ground;
Afghan corruption eroded ANDSF capabilities;
U.S training, logistics and weapons procurement policies undermined its stated goal of creating a self-sustaining Afghan military;
The United States perpetuated pre-existing ethnic and regional tensions rather than achieving stated mission goals of force diversity and unification;
The U.S. and Afghan governments failed to develop a police force effective at providing justice and protecting Afghan citizens from crime.
Sopko also stated that during SIGAR’s work looking at the accounting for and status of U.S.-provided equipment to the ANDSF and U.S.trained ANDSF personnel, the agency found that the United States lacked a full accounting of equipment and personnel even before the collapse.
He said the IEA is now using U.S.-provided military equipment in operations; and while some U.S.-provided aircraft have been recovered, others remain in limbo in other countries.
In addition, ANDSF personnel have escaped, are in hiding, have been killed, or may have joined extremist groups, Sopko stated.
Sopko also stated in the report that the US department of defense and the state departed declined to review the interim
Draft of the report and in turn denied SIGAR access to their staff, “and mostly declined to answer requests for information”.
“This limited SIGAR’s ability to perform this evaluation. Still, this final version includes additional information that we received from U.S. and former Afghan officials over the past eight months, without support from U.S. agencies.”
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
In the wake of dozens of meetings between high-ranking Islamic Emirate officials and visiting officials from foreign countries, and other diplomatic advances, the IEA said on Thursday that in the current geopolitical landscape, Kabul now “serves as a nexus for diplomatic endeavors and political deliberations pertaining to global affairs”.
In a series of posts on X, the IEA’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said diplomatic missions and political delegations from various nations, including Russia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, the European Union, and others, “are evident in the capital, highlighting its strategic importance in fostering Islamic cooperation”.
He said: “Recently, the honorable Minister of Transport of the Islamic Emirate, Mr. Hamidullah Akhundzada, led a significant delegation to Termez, Uzbekistan, for essential discussions aimed at enhancing bilateral relations.
“These discussions encompass a wide range of topics, from trade facilitation to security assurances, indicating a focused effort by the Islamic Emirate to strengthen and broaden its international engagements, thereby ensuring sustained development and stability.
“These initiatives, characterized by diligence and effectiveness, underscore Afghanistan’s enduring commitment to diplomatic engagement and its pivotal role in regional and global affairs,” he said.
Mujahid added that these initiatives “also emphasize the vital connection between diplomatic efforts and economic prosperity, promising favorable outcomes for Afghanistan’s socio-economic landscape.”
He pointed out that despite ongoing challenges, Afghanistan “remains steadfast in its pursuit of prosperity and resilience, defying pessimistic projections and charting a course towards political and economic renewal.”
He said: “Continued efforts are essential to fostering inclusive growth and impactful initiatives, thus advancing Afghanistan’s journey towards sustainable development and increased influence on the global stage.”
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