New Report Details 'Staggering' Mistakes In Afghanistan Reconstruction

A new report released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) details the "staggering" mistakes made during the longest-running war in American history. The report was compiled before the Taliban retook the country after 20 years of U.S. occupation.

"After 13 years of oversight, the cumulative list of systemic challenges SIGAR and other oversight bodies have identified is staggering. As former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told SIGAR, "We just don't have a post-conflict stabilization model that works. Every time we have one of these things, it is a pick-up game. I don't have confidence that if we did it again, we would do any better."

The report did mention that the U.S. made some improvements in the country but concluded that a "counterproductive cycle" of focusing on short-term gains often caused more problems in the long run.

"While there have been several areas of improvement—most notably in the areas of health care, maternal health, and education—progress has been elusive, and the prospects for sustaining this progress are dubious," the report said. "The U.S. government has been often overwhelmed by the magnitude of rebuilding a country that, at the time of the U.S. invasion, had already seen two decades of Soviet occupation, civil war, and Taliban brutality."

The report faulted the U.S. for failing to fully understand the "social landscapes" of the country and said the government "clumsily forced Western technocratic models onto Afghan economic institutions."

"U.S. officials often empowered powerbrokers who preyed on the population or diverted U.S. assistance away from its intended recipients to enrich and empower themselves and their allies. Lack of knowledge at the local level meant projects intended to mitigate conflict often exacerbated it, and even inadvertently funded insurgents."

SIGAR also pointed out how U.S. officials underestimated and ignored corruption within the Afghan government it was trying to assemble.

"For too long, the U.S. government held onto the assumption that it was creating a transparent, rule-bound Afghan government from scratch in a way that would benefit the public," the report stated.