The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) posted a response to a letter from Sens. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Mike Braun (R-Indiana) which requested “lessons learned” from Afghanistan reconstruction oversight that may be applicable to US efforts in Ukraine.
The SIGAR’s response includes seven lessons SIGAR identified over the course of the US reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.
Each lesson is accompanied by a brief discussion of assistance to Ukraine, followed by recommendations to ensure that lessons from Afghanistan benefit similar efforts in Ukraine.
The seven lessons are outlined below.
Lesson 1: The U.S. government struggled to develop a coherent strategy for what it hoped to achieve in Afghanistan and imposed unrealistic timelines that led to wasteful and counterproductive programs.
Lesson 2: Lack of effective coordination—both within the U.S. government and across the international coalition—was a major obstacle to success in Afghanistan and resulted in a disjointed patchwork of ineffective efforts, rather than a united and coherent approach.
Lesson 3: Though viewed as our greatest strength, the level of financial assistance in Afghanistan was often our greatest weakness.
Lesson 4: Corruption was an existential threat to the reconstruction mission in Afghanistan.
Lesson 5: Building and reforming the Afghan security forces was hindered by their corruption, predation, and chronic dependency on the United States.
Lesson 6: Tracking equipment provided to Afghan security forces proved challenging well before the government collapsed.
Lesson 7: Monitoring and evaluation efforts in Afghanistan were weak and often measured simple inputs and outputs rather than actual program effectiveness.
Read the full SIGAR document here.
Read the Senators’ original letter to SIGAR here.
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