Watchdog: United States troop pullout was key factor in Afghanistan collapse & More News Here

A US authorities watchdog says selections by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden to drag all US troops out of Afghanistan had been the key elements in the collapse of that nation’s army.

The new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or Sigar, mirrors assertions made by senior Pentagon and army leaders in the aftermath of the US troop withdrawal that ended final August in the chaotic evacuation of Americans and different civilians from the embattled nation. Military leaders have made it clear that their advice was to depart about 2,500 US troops in the nation, however that plan was not permitted.

In February 2020, the Trump administration signed an settlement with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, in which the US promised to completely withdraw its troops by May 2021. The Taliban dedicated to a number of circumstances, together with stopping assaults on American and coalition forces. The acknowledged goal was to advertise a peace negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities, however that diplomatic effort by no means gained traction earlier than Biden took workplace in January 2022.

Just a number of months later, Biden introduced he would full the US army withdrawal. The announcement fuelled the Taliban’s marketing campaign to retake the nation, aided by the Afghans’ widespread mistrust of their authorities and entrenched corruption that led to low pay, lack of meals and poor dwelling circumstances among the many Afghan troops.

“Many Afghans thought the US-Taliban agreement was an act of bad faith and a signal that the US was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country,” the interim report mentioned. “Its immediate effect was a dramatic loss in (Afghan troops’) morale.”

US officers have mentioned they had been stunned by the short collapse of the army and the federal government, prompting sharp congressional criticism of the intelligence neighborhood for failing to foresee it.

At a congressional listening to final week, senators questioned whether or not there’s a have to reform how intelligence businesses assess a overseas army’s will to combat. Lawmakers pointed to 2 key examples: US intelligence believed that the Kabul authorities would maintain on for months towards the Taliban, and extra not too long ago believed that Ukraine’s forces would shortly fall to Russia’s invasion. Both had been fallacious.

Military and defence leaders have mentioned that the Afghanistan collapse was constructed on years of missteps, because the US struggled to discover a profitable method to practice and equip Afghan forces.

In a blunt evaluation of the battle, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised Congress final fall that the outcome was years in the making.

“Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there’s no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years,” Milley mentioned, including that classes have to be discovered, together with whether or not the US army made the Afghans overly depending on American expertise in a mistaken effort to make the Afghan military appear to be the American military.

Indeed, in the top, the brand new report mentioned that the Afghans had been nonetheless closely depending on US air assist for strikes and emergency evacuations, and likewise on US contractors to take care of and restore plane and different programs.

But all agree that the Doha settlement was a lynchpin in the collapse.

“The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military — psychologically more than anything else, but we set a date certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” General Frank McKenzie advised Congress final yr.

McKenzie, who was then the highest US basic in the Middle East and has since retired, argued to maintain 2,500 US troops there, as did Milley.

The Doha settlement, mentioned the Sigar report, led the Afghan inhabitants and its army to really feel deserted. And the Trump administration’s determination to restrict US airstrikes towards the Taliban stopped any progress the Afghans had been making, and left them unable and finally unwilling to carry territory, it mentioned.

According to the report, a former US commander in Afghanistan mentioned the US constructed the Afghan military to depend on contractor assist. “Without it, it can’t function. Game over,” the commander advised Sigar. “When the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up.”

More broadly, the Sigar report mentioned that each the US and Afghan governments “lacked the political will to dedicate the time and resources necessary to reconstruct an entire security sector in a war-torn and impoverished country.”

Neither facet, it mentioned, “appeared to have the political commitment to doing what it would take to address the challenges.” As a outcome, it mentioned, the Afghan army could not function independently and by no means actually turned a cohesive drive.

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