SIGAR blames ANDSF collapse on flawed US pullout

KABUL (Pajhwok): The collapse of Afghan National Defence Security and Security Forces (ANDSF) was triggered by Washington’s lack of proper planning, policies and resources.

In a damning report released on Monday, the Special the Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) raised disturbing questions about the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

SIGAR John Sopko, in his final report, accused the United States of lacking the political will and dedicated resources to initiate the wholesale development of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

A global website quoted him as saying: “The United States created ANDSF that could not operate independently and set unrealistic milestones for ANDSF capability development. The eventual collapse of the ANDSF was predictable.”

According to Defense One, the report assailed the Trump and Biden administrations for their decision to pull out American troops from Afghanistan after two decades of war.

The move fundamentally altered every subsequent decision by US government agencies, the Ashraf Ghani administration and the Taliban, the report said.

Neither the US nor the former Afghan government looked politically committed to addressing the challenges, including devoting the time and resources necessary to develop a professional ANDSF, the federal watchdog concluded.

“The February 2020 decision to commit to a rapid U.S. military withdrawal sealed the ANDSF’s fate,” the report claimed, citing corruption of Afghan government officials and lack of accountability and oversight by the US, NATO and Kabul.

The withdrawal was abrupt and uncoordinated, giving locals the impression that the US was simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting, SIGAR commented.

Sopko also slammed the 2020 Doha Agreement between the Trump administration and the IEA. He alleged the deal created a sense of abandonment in the Afghan forces and public at large.

SIGAR went onto hit out at the Pentagon’s failure to properly account for weapons and equipment it provided to the Afghan military.

PAN Monitor/mud