Biden’s $7.2B Tali-bonanza
At least $7.2 billion worth of US-provided military equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban after the Biden administration withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, according to a scathing watchdog report released Monday.
The massive figure, which hadn’t previously been reported, included the cost of aircraft, missiles, biometric devices and communications gear that the US had supplied to the Afghanistan military over the course of the war, according to the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
SIGAR also said the Pentagon failed to properly account for weapons and equipment it provided to Afghanistan’s military.
The US had spent $18.6 billion arming the Afghanistan military since 2002, according to the IG.
The report said the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was “abrupt and uncoordinated,” giving locals the impression the US “was simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting.”
The exit, announced by Biden in April 2021, “destroyed the morale of Afghan soldiers and police” who had “long relied on the US military’s presence” for their own protection — as well as to ensure the Kabul government paid their salaries.
Watchdog John F. Sopko also faulted the 2020 Doha Agreement reached between the Trump administration and the Taliban for instilling “a sense of abandonment” in both the Afghan forces and public at large.
“The US-Taliban agreement gave the Taliban its core demand: the complete withdrawal of US and coalition troops, as well as contractors,” the report stated. “The Afghan government, a nonsignatory to the agreement, was excluded from negotiations, legitimating the Taliban on the world stage and further undercutting the Afghan government’s credibility, which many Afghans already viewed as illegitimate.”
Meanwhile, the evacuation of US contractors left the Afghan military unable to supply or maintain their own forces, leaving them helpless in the face of the Taliban onslaught, the report said.
“When the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up,” said Lt. Gen. David Barno, the former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan
.