U.S. effort to stabilize Afghanistan a $5 billion failure, says watchdog

[PoliticAverse]

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON -- The watchdog responsible for monitoring the U.S. government's effort to rebuild Afghanistan says the 15-year, $5 billion effort hasn't worked, according to a report released Thursday.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says the U.S. set unrealistic expectations for stabilizing Afghanistan on a short timeline, that the Obama administration lacked the political will to invest the necessary time and effort to stabilize the country, and that some efforts to bolster the Afghan government actually backfired.

"overall assessment is that despite some heroic efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2017, the program mostly failed," said John Sopko, head of SIGAR, at a Thursday morning event announcing the report.

The report examines stabilization efforts from 2002, soon after the U.S. began military operations in the country, to 2017.


Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-effort-to-stabilize-afghanistan-a-245-billion-failure-says-watchdog/ar-AAxKsdB

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Link to the report (.pdf): https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/lessonslearned/SIGAR-18-48-LL.pdf

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction website: https://www.sigar.mil/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Heroic efforts as opposed to what the rump crime team would do.

[sandensea]

2. But a roaring success if you were on that gravy train.

[zipplewrath]

3. too many generals

Interesting interview with a former State Dept. official. He served under both Bush and Obama. He asserted that over that 16 year period there was an increasing reliance upon generals and retired generals in the White House and less and less on State and their diplomats. It's only gotten worse under this administration.

I suspect this "failure" is due to an emphasis on battle and not on diplomacy.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

4. But,

the heroin trade and proving ground for weapons of all types?? How will we be able to go on? The oil and gas? The minerals that are yet to be mined...

[Hoyt]

5. $5 Billion. I bet it's a lot more than that.

[PoliticAverse]

6. That's just the amount specifically earmarked for "stabilization". The total amount spent

in Afghanistan is much, much greater.

[Hoyt]

7. Ah, thanks. Gonna take a lot more -- mostly bribes -- than that to stabilize that country.

[Archae]

13. "Stablize" Afghanistan?

With the US, Taliban, ISIS, local warlords and dope growers, not to mention Dick Cheney's old cronies there?

Surely you jest.

[CanonRay]

8. Who could have predicted this?

[yonder]

9. The British and the old Soviet Union.

Might be why it is sometimes referred to as the "Graveyard of Empires".

[TimeSnowDemos]

10. No surprise

It was never going to work. The Taliban knew they could simply wait out US troops.

And they were right.

On a side note, back when the US Corp of Engineers was damming up Afghan rivers in the 1950s they told the Executive branch that it would raise the water table and make industrial poppy growth possible...

In other words the US knew its policy and behavior might result in a narco state... But they were obsessed with Russia and decided it was worth the risk.

Funny how many lousy decisions come back and bite America on the ass.

[GeorgeGist]

11. $5 Billion my ass.

More like $500 billion.

[PoliticAverse]

12. $5 billion was just the amount in a special fund earmarked for "stabilization". n/t