Throughout the 20-year U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, the United States provided nearly $90 billion to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), including $18.6 billion to arm and equip the western-backed Afghan government. A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that a significant amount of that equipment was left behind for the Taliban when the Afghan government collapsed.
The SIGAR report, released on Feb. 28, provided an updated assessment of the factors contributing to the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the hasty effort to evacuate thousands of U.S. troops, civilians, and military equipment as the Taliban took control of the country….