“Hubris and mendacity” characterize the U.S. approach to rebuilding Afghanistan, according to the federal watchdog monitoring the $132 billion of taxpayers’ money allotted for reconstruction in the war-torn country since 2002.

A damning new report by John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, comes amid fresh hopes of a peace deal to end a conflict that has bedeviled successive U.S. presidents at a cost of more than 2,000 U.S. lives.

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