US leaves $7.2 billion worth of weapons to Afghan Taliban

A government watchdog said an abrupt, uncoordinated withdrawal from Afghanistan and years of problems with planning and oversight of US assistance contributed to the collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban takeover of the country soon after American forces departed, according to a report released on February 27.

Poor accountability on weapons and equipment provided to Afghanistan and a lack of systemic planning were also important factors in the military collapse there, according to the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The document, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, also calls out the Department of Defense for delaying answering official inquiries, missing deadlines and providing incomplete answers to questions.

The inspector general laid blame on US administrations going back to George W. Bush, but the report cites as a pivotal turning point the 2020 Doha Agreement, when the Trump administration pledged to withdraw American troops and contractors from the country in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban.

Afghan officials, who the inspectors said bear a large share of blame for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces collapse and Taliban takeover of the country, believed the Biden administration wouldn’t hew to the agreement, because they considered it a poorly negotiated deal, according to the report.

“The character of the withdrawal left many Afghans with the impression that the US was simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting,” the report said. But Mr. Biden made an even more abrupt exit than anticipated by Afghan allies, according to the report.

The Defense Department said in a written response included in the report that it cooperated with the investigation, and disputed the characterization, saying it provided written responses to the inspector general’s questions.

“Since SIGAR’s inception, DoD has contributed to and facilitated their work—a fact the report echoes in its opening pages,” said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick in a statement after the publication of this story. “DoD again contributed to this report and provided responses to SIGAR’s requests for information.’’ He added that DoD takes exception to SIGAR’s assertions of non-cooperation.

The Pentagon also disagreed with some of the report’s key findings, including that US forces abruptly quit the country and cut off assistance to Afghan allies. In its response, included in the report, it said US officials were in touch with Afghan leadership during the period before the withdrawal, assuring them it would continue to provide security assistance.

The congressionally mandated report comes some 18 months after the rapid collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul, which led to bipartisan criticism of how the Biden administration handled the withdrawal. It will also arrive on Capitol Hill amid a debate over how to conduct oversight of the tens of billions of dollars of assistance now flowing into Ukraine.

Representatives of both the House and Senate Armed Services committees declined to comment on the inspector general report.

Government watchdogs responsible for aid to Ukraine recently said they would like to have auditors on the ground in the country. And John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, who has spent the past decade documenting wasted US funds, has also called for more oversight of the money now flowing into Ukraine.

In this latest report, Mr. Sopko’s office said current military assistance to Ukraine requires more oversight to avoid the mistakes made over the course of two decades in Afghanistan.

“There is an understandable desire amid a crisis to focus on getting money out the door and to worry about oversight later, but too often that creates more problems than it solves,” the report said. “Given the ongoing conflict and the unprecedented volume of weapons being transferred to Ukraine, the risk that some equipment ends up on the black market or in the wrong hands is likely unavoidable.”

Weeks after the fall of Kabul and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, Congress directed the inspector general to find the causes of the quick collapse of Afghan armed forces.

The inspector general said that from the onset of the investigative process, government agencies didn’t help in the effort. In addition to its criticism of the Pentagon, the report also addresses the role of the US Agency for International Development and the State Department.

Both agencies deferred to the Defense Department to comment on the report, and raised questions about the inspector general’s jurisdiction.

A USAID spokesperson said the agency gave written responses to hundreds of questions and provided thousands of documents to the inspector general. A State Department spokesperson reiterated its challenge to the special inspector general’s jurisdiction, but said it would work with the appropriate congressional committees and “accommodate their legitimate need for information to help them conduct oversight for legislative purposes.”

The Afghan forces were dependent on US contractors for support, including supply and maintenance, and when the US pulled those personnel from the country in June 2021, the Afghans abruptly lost those capabilities, according to the inspector general.

“Even the US military underestimated the significance of pulling contractor support in Afghanistan,” the report said.

Among other issues cited in the report is that at least $7.2 billion of military equipment—a number that hasn’t been previously reported—including aircraft, missiles, communications gear, and biometric devices that were left behind under Taliban control in August 2021. The final tally of military equipment abandoned in Afghanistan can’t be confirmed, in part, because the electronic database used to track the materiel crashed in early 2021, investigators said in the report.

The US over two decades provided approximately $18.6 billion to equip the Afghan military.