Congress’ Afghanistan watchdog will continue oversight – Roll Call

Category: Afghanistan

The United States is really not prepared for large reconstruction programs like this in a conflict zone, he said. Every time we do it, we do it poorly.

Leaders resolve again and again not to do it, but the U.S. has engaged in three major reconstruction efforts in the last 50 years in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, he noted. The United States would be better off accepting that it will likely find itself engaged in something similar in another challenging part of the world and prepare itself for that mission than simply vowing to never do it again, he said.

Sopko said that he was initially surprised by the speed of the collapse of the Afghan Security Forces, but when he and his staff reflected on it, it seemed inevitable.

Corruption was rampant in the Afghan military, he said. One American commander once told Sopko that 50 percent of the fuel provided by the United States was stolen, he said.

We spent too much money, too fast, in too small a country, with no oversight, he said. Every Afghan you talk to says it was the corruption in the military that led to the militarys downfall.

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Congress' Afghanistan watchdog will continue oversight - Roll Call

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September 15th, 2021
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