{"id":938466,"date":"2021-10-29T17:13:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T21:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=938466"},"modified":"2021-10-29T17:13:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T21:13:54","slug":"watchdog-u-s-wasted-89-billion-on-currently-nonexistent-afghan-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watchdog-u-s-wasted-89-billion-on-currently-nonexistent-afghan-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog: U.S. Wasted $89 Billion on Currently Nonexistent Afghan Military"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwatchdog-u-s-wasted-89-billion-on-currently-nonexistent-afghan-military%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=938466&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">The top federal agency in charge of oversight of American involvement in Afghanistan <a href=\"http:\/\/sigar.mil\/pdf\/quarterlyreports\/2021-10-30qr.pdf\">published<\/a> a report on Friday&nbsp;stating the U.S. government spent nearly $89 billion on \u201ctraining and equipping\u201d the Afghan military in the past two decades.<\/p>\n<p>The Afghan military, formally the&nbsp;Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), \u201cno longer exist,\u201d the report \u2013 the latest installment of its mandatory quarterly report to Congress \u2013 noted.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The country\u2019s armed forces collapsed this summer after President Joe Biden announced he would extend the Afghan War, the longest in American history, beyond the May 1 deadline that the previous administration had agreed to in a deal with the Taliban terrorist organization. In response to Biden\u2019s violation of that agreement, the Taliban began a national takeover, conquering every region of the country before taking over the capital, Kabul, on August 15. The Taliban\u2019s rise to power was largely bloodless as a consequence of&nbsp;ANDSF soldiers reportedly fleeing the battlefield en masse or joining the Taliban rather than fighting on behalf of the collapsed Afghan government.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the Afghan government\u2019s collapse, the Office of the&nbsp;Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) estimated that the U.S. government had allocated $146 billion to \u201crebuild\u201d Afghanistan after the initial invasion in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore important \u2026 some 2,400 American service members, and at least 1,233 contractors, including 45 Americans, lost their lives in that country,\u201d the report noted. \u201cMeanwhile more than 21,000 service members and 1,427 contractors, including 38 Americans, were wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>In Friday\u2019s nearly 200-page report, Inspector General John Sopko called the military mission \u201cthe single costliest reconstruction effort.\u201d Given that the objective of the investment in the ANDSF was to ensure its success, the fact that it no longer exists suggests that the U.S. received nothing in return for its investment of American taxpayers\u2019 dollars.<\/p>\n<p>SIGAR noted the Biden administration had reason to see the collapse of the country and return of the Taliban, who ruled with an iron fist before the 2001 invasion meant to dethrone it, years before it occurred. SIGAR itself warned in 2014, the current report recalled, \u201cMuch of the U.S. reconstruction effort \u2018risks being wasted because the Afghans cannot sustain the investment without massive continued donor support.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18232186\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"37\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Taliban-2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18232186\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Taliban-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Taliban fighters stand guard near the venue of an open-air rally in a field on the outskirts of Kabul on October 3, 2021, as the Taliban supporters and senior figures held their first mass rally in a show of strength as they consolidate their rule of Afghanistan. (Hoshang Hashimi\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taliban fighters stand guard near the venue of an open-air rally in a field on the outskirts of Kabul on October 3, 2021, as the Taliban supporters and senior figures held their first mass rally in a show of strength as they consolidate their rule of Afghanistan (Hoshang Hashimi\/AFP via Getty Images).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201c[U]nder current and future plans, the ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] is not fiscally sustainable,\u201d the agency warned that year.<\/p>\n<p>The watchdog evaluated \u201creconstruction\u201d as a separate mission from the Pentagon\u2019s military operations in Afghanistan against the Taliban and its ally organization al-Qaeda. That effort, SIGAR noted, cost&nbsp;$839.8 billion between September 2001 and June of this year, according to the Pentagon. SIGAR accused the Pentagon of failing to provide for a litany of expenditures, however, including:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"13\">\n<p>(1) training and advising programs such as the Train Advise Assist Commands (TAACs), the Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs), the Ministry of Defense Advisors (MODA) program, the Afghanistan Hands Program (AHP), and the DOD Expeditionary Civilian (DOD-EC) program; (2) support provided to members of the NATO Resolute Support Mission; and (3) certain advisory and support costs of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) and its successor, the Defense Security Cooperation Management Office-Afghanistan (DSCMO-A)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The agency noted that independent estimates suggest the true cost of the war effort may be in the trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The Biden administration may lose millions more in training efforts in the near future even when the force it is spending to train does not exist, SIGAR warned. The U.S. still had&nbsp;$356 million in training contracts as of September 13. SIGAR estimated only $141 million of these funds are \u201crecoupable,\u201d meaning another loss of more than $200 million.<\/p>\n<p>SIGAR had identified widespread corruption and incompetence as a significant factor in U.S. government waste in the ANDSF for years. In 2016, SIGAR warned that the Afghan government was reporting \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2016\/10\/07\/watchdog-suggests-nearly-200k-u-s-funded-afghan-troops-ghost-forces\/\">ghost<\/a>\u201d troops \u2013 that is, individuals who do not exist \u2013 among the military\u2019s ranks to request funds to \u201ctrain\u201d them. Much of that money was never accounted for. SIGAR warned that year that Washington had no idea how many ANDSF troops \u201cactually exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By this summer, former Afghan officials were loudly denouncing that the U.S.-backed Afghan government had made it impossible for real Afghan troops to do their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no motivation for the army to fight for the corrupt government and corrupt politicians here,\u201d former Afghan Ambassador to London Ahmad Wali Massoud&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/taliban-make-new-gains-in-afghanistan-putting-kabul-in-crisis-11628528482?mod=hp_featst_pos4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">told<\/a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> in August. \u201cThey are not fighting for Ghani. They haven\u2019t even been fed properly. Why should they fight? For what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The collapse of the Afghan military caused international turmoil. More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers fled a Taliban advance in July and crossed into Tajikistan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/news\/over-1000-afghan-troops-flee-taliban-into-tajikistan\/\">overwhelming<\/a> the Central Asian nation. Tajikistan has since urged its larger neighbors like Russia and China to help it maintain stability on its border and announced China would build a military base on the Tajik-Afghan border this week.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday,&nbsp;Secretary of State Antony Blinken&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/tolonews.com\/afghanistan-175217\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">announced<\/a>&nbsp;the Biden administration would invest $144 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Administration officials insisted the money would not go to the Taliban.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15692938\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"37\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/feb4-2021-sec-state-antony-blinken-pres-joe-biden-over-shoulder-getty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15692938\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/feb4-2021-sec-state-antony-blinken-pres-joe-biden-over-shoulder-getty.jpg\" alt=\"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to staff at the US State Department during the first visit of US President Joe Biden(L) in Washington, DC, February 4, 2021. - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced concern over jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny and imprisoned Americans in a telephone call Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (Photo by SAUL LOEB \/ AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to staff at the US State Department during the first visit of US President Joe Biden(L) in Washington, DC, February 4, 2021 (SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Follow Frances Martel on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1635543709512000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFEw0vSvC63I4pATr7JNtPpaW5gLw\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1635543709512000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEKxpWrPHE3c5gmmyR1Q0DvqG3b5g\">Twitter<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top federal agency in charge of oversight of American involvement in Afghanistan published a report on Friday\u00a0stating the U.S. government spent nearly $89 billion on \u201ctraining and equipping\u201d the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}