Wednesday 18 May 2022 07:10 PM Biden's exit from Afghanistan led to collapse of Afghan military, scathing ... trends now
Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction John Sopko on Tuesday released a withering report on how two administrations contributed to the collapse of Afghan security forces last year
The biggest factors in the rapid collapse of Afghanistan's armed forces were the Trump administration's deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops and contractors from the country followed by Joe Biden's announcement that he was pulling out all U.S. troops, according to a scathing watchdog report.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (S.I.G.A.R) found that Afghan forces had been built to reply on U.S. air power as well as contractors to maintain sophisticated weaponry.
Doing a deal with the Taliban to pull out, wrote John Sopko, set in motion the collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (A.N.D.S.F.).
'The single most important near-term factor in the A.N.D.S.F.'s collapse was the U.S. decision to withdraw the U.S. military and contractors from Afghanistan through the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February 2020, signed under the Trump Administration and confirmed by President Biden in an April 2021 address to the nation,' he wrote in a report published on Tuesday.
'Many Afghans thought the U.S.-Taliban agreement was an act of bad faith and a signal that the U.S. was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country; its immediate effect was a dramatic loss in A.N.D.S.F. morale.'
President Biden announced in April last year that he was bringing U.S. troops home in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
He said the war in Afghanistan needed to end after two decades of war that had cost American lives, drained resources and distracted from more important priorities.
A new watchdog report offers a scathing account of how the actions of the Trump and Biden administrations triggered a collapse in morale in Afghan armed forces - like the ones seen here in Enjil district, Herat province, in August last year - and ultimately allowed a Taliban takeover
The biggest factor that led to the collapse of the Afghan military in August last year was the decision to withdraw forces and contractors from Afghanistan through an agreement with the Taliban signed by the Trump administration and executed by the Biden administration
Taliban fighters from the Fateh Zwak unit celebrated before storming into the Kabul International Airport after U.S. troops had left, securing their hold on the country
The rapid advance of Taliban fighters surprised the U.S. military and intelligence community. However, in his report the inspector general said the collapse of the Afghan armed forces should have been predicted once U.S. support was withdrawn
But by mid August the withdrawal was in disarray. Foreign nationals and Afghans mobbed Kabul's airport as the Taliban moved in to retake the country.
Senior U.S. military and intelligence figures
