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August 2021: The last Western soldiers flee Kabul. Hundreds of desperate Afghans run after the departing American transport planes, trying to cling to them. The ones that make sure they drop dead in front of the cameras.

Not since the last helicopter descended from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975 has the United States witnessed and shared responsibility for such a traumatic military collapse. An extensive investigation report was published at the end of February, investigating the causes of the malfunction to the bottom.

The research team actually wanted to focus on why the Afghan government army collapsed within days – despite 20 years of support from the West and a total of $ 90 billion in arms aid.

The responsible office of the Extraordinary Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan “Sigar” (Special Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan) subsequently discovered several causes beyond the purely military. These are indicative of the failure of US foreign policy in this region of the world.

corruption

The Sigar report cites one of the most obvious reasons, not primarily: widespread corruption in the Afghan government and military is having a devastating effect on their combat effectiveness.

So much money and material flowed into the country from the US that even American checkpoints are lost.

Lack of long-term strategy

According to the Sigar report, the lack of a long-term strategy in the US is more important than Afghanistan’s corruption. Since George W. Bush, none of the US presidents has wanted to stay in Afghanistan any longer.

The military and civilian American leaders appointed there pursued only short-term reports of success: “Instead of a 20-year plan, we had 20 1-year plans”summarized Sigar CEO John Sopko at a recent event.

As a result, the respective US governments had completely unrealistic expectations of how long it would take to build a functioning Afghan army and administration.

Too complex requirements

The Sigar report also describes an interesting vicious circle: The US trained the Afghan military to mirror its own forces, with far too complex requirements for equipment and personnel.

It all started when Afghans were given American assault rifles instead of the Kalashnikovs common in the region. The lack of understanding of local idiosyncrasies was compounded by poorly instructed American trainers who rotated every nine months.

As a result, US forces covered up the failures of the Afghan military by taking the brunt of the war effort, rather than allowing the Afghans to gain combat experience against the Taliban themselves.

However, when it came to finding a justification for the withdrawal of Western troops, the capabilities of the Afghan military were exaggerated, out of touch with reality. At the same time, Afghan government forces felt betrayed and lost by their Western allies.

The 148-page report gives numerous other reasons. Following its own investigations, the US Department of Defense refused to cooperate with the Sigar team, which after all conducted investigations on behalf of various congressional committees. When asked by the journal “Military Times” whether the United States will still learn the right lessons from the debacle in Afghanistan, Sigar director Sopko replies: “I wouldn’t necessarily be super optimistic about that.”