This report on Afghanistan will make you sick
A shocking new report out from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction shows just how terribly the U.S. has failed after nearly two decades of war and rebuilding in the country.
According to Afghanistan Inspector General John F. Sopko, the Middle Eastern nation currently has more territory under Taliban control than at any time since the 9/11 terror attacks that kicked off the U.S. military invasion there.
Part of the problem in the country is that it lacks any semblance of a stable economy.
“Intractable insurgents, cutbacks in foreign military personnel, persistent emigration of people and capital, and a slowing global economy are shifting Afghanistan’s economic prospects from troubling to bleak,” the IG report says.
As it has in the past, the weak economic situation has provided opportunities for the Taliban to play a Robin Hood role in some regions, winning support from the Afghan population.
In the areas where the Taliban has been welcomed, it’s becoming nearly impossible for members of the Afghan government and U.S. forces to “manage and inspect U.S.-funded reconstruction projects.”
“The dangers of absent oversight were exposed when a task force appointed by President Ashraf Ghani reportedly found that millions of dollars were being embezzled while Afghanistan pays for numerous nonexistent ‘ghost’ schools, ‘ghost’ teachers, and ‘ghost’ students,” states the report.
And this isn’t a problem that’s isolated to a small region of the country, as the Taliban is now as powerful as it was in the region before U.S. involvement.
Here’s the full SIGAR report:
More on U.S. taxpayer waste in Afghanistan:
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