The latest quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction is out, and it yet again makes for a disturbing read. The forever war in Afghanistan, 18 years and counting, is not going particularly well.
In fact, “not going well” would a gross understatement.
By most measures, the situation is getting increasingly hopeless. In the last three months, enemy-initiated attacks have increased 19%. Afghan army and police casualties are 31% higher than they were during the same period last year. Corruption, incompetence, equipment shortfalls, and poor morale pollute an Afghan force the United States has spent $83 billion in taxpayer money to build. And the Afghan government is likely years, if not decades, away from being able to fund itself.
According to SIGAR’s report, the International Monetary Fund assesses that it will take Kabul another four years to contribute 50% of its own budget. The international community, with Washington in the lead, will be on the hook for the rest.
The most infuriating development, however, is the complete and utter lack of transparency from the Pentagon. Metrics once available for the public to assess with their own eyes are now redacted or suddenly rendered irrelevant to the wider U.S. mission. American taxpayers are being asked to pay for a military campaign without being given the type of information that is critical to determining how the campaign is going and whether their money is being spent wisely. It’s like an investor pouring cash into a stock and the broker refusing to provide profit margins at the end of quarter. Americans are in the dark.
For years, successive U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have cited control of terrain as a prime metric of the war effort. Former Cmdr. John W. Nicholson is on record stating its importance. The U.S. strategy was built on it. Now, the Pentagon is basically telling Americans, “Just kidding — those measurements are baseless after all.”
If the metrics are useless, what does that say about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan? We are entering a whole different plane of absurdity. Just when you thought America’s generation-long conflict couldn’t get any more inexplicable, Washington finds a way. Apparently, it can always get worse.
All of this unaccountability begs more fundamental questions. What is the U.S. fighting for in Afghanistan? Why are 14,000 U.S. troops still on Afghan soil? Why are American taxpayers continuing to fork over $45 billion a year on behalf of a stalemate? And how long are we going to put up with it?
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
