The $148 billion failure: Watchdog's final report excoriates America’s attempt to rebuild Afghanista

[rangerrebew]

The $148 billion failure: Watchdog's final report excoriates America’s attempt to rebuild Afghanistan
After nearly two decades of oversight, SIGAR will conclude its work early next year.
Thomas Novelly | December 3, 2025
Afghanistan Defense Department
   
More than $148 billion was spent by the U.S. government in its failed attempt to build a free Afghanistan, according to the final report by the official watchdog office, whose careful documentation of waste and fraud, and its warnings of Taliban resurgence, went largely unheeded.

For 17 years, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, tracked every dollar allocated to the country for security, development, and humanitarian aid. As early as 2012, the office saw signs that the U.S. government and military’s efforts were falling short.

“A lot of people knew this wasn’t working. This war wasn't working. In our quarterly reports we would report on ‘the number of districts falling to the Taliban is increasing’,” Gene Aloise, SIGAR’s acting inspector general, told reporters at a Defense Writers Group roundtable on Wednesday. “Our quarterly reports laid out what was happening, and you could predict the future based on what we were saying.”

Aloise spoke as SIGAR released its final report, a 125-page “forensic audit” that condenses its thousands of pages of analysis and documentation of the Afghanistan-reconstruction effort, which consumed more money than was sent to Europe under the post-World War II Marshall Plan. Per the 2025 defense authorization act, the office will close Jan. 31.

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/12/watchdogs-final-report-highlights-us-govs-148-billion-afghanistan-reconstruction-failure/409909/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story

[Hoodat]

It should be noted that this began in 2009, not 2002.

[catfish1957]

It should be noted that this began in 2009, not 2002.

"W"...  The gift that keeps on giving.     

[Smokin Joe]

Got an enemy? Define the mission, execute it, go home.
"Nation building" is not our job.
Dealing with fundamental religious objections that go back 1400 years, and a way of life that just doesn't flange up with our own and trying to make them a mini me, just does not work.
Of course the money flowed like snowmelt in spring.
But any lasting change there had to come from within.
Otherwise, you're throwing money at cultural inertia, and while the money will be absorbed/siphoned off, nothing else will change. So, cui bono?

[Hoodat]

"W"...  The gift that keeps on giving.

This has nothing to do with 'W'.  His Afghanistan policy was a success.  Minimal garrison.  An airbase in a very strategic location, checking China, Iran, and Pakistan.  Very low casualties in an extended war setting.  And no nation-building.

But then Obama took over and tried to apply the successes of Iraq (which could never work in Afghanistan) along with typical leftist society-building.  Our casualty rates skyrocketed after Obama took over.

[Fishrrman]

Smokin' Joe opines:
"Otherwise, you're throwing money at cultural inertia, and while the money will be absorbed/siphoned off, nothing else will change..."

Saw this earlier today. Have no idea if it's real or faked:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3OqwNFhaYvc

[Smokin Joe]

Smokin' Joe opines:
"Otherwise, you're throwing money at cultural inertia, and while the money will be absorbed/siphoned off, nothing else will change..."

Saw this earlier today. Have no idea if it's real or faked:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3OqwNFhaYvc

I don't know, but each of those little packets would be about 10K (new bills stack tight), maybe more. Each stack is more than I have in the bank if it's real.
Considering the pallets of cash that Obama sent off, it very well could be real.

(Just a couple of those sort of stacks, and I'd be set for life).

[catfish1957]

This has nothing to do with 'W'.  His Afghanistan policy was a success.  Minimal garrison.  An airbase in a very strategic location, checking China, Iran, and Pakistan.  Very low casualties in an extended war setting.  And no nation-building.

But then Obama took over and tried to apply the successes of Iraq (which could never work in Afghanistan) along with typical leftist society-building.  Our casualty rates skyrocketed after Obama took over.

Respectfully disagree...

WOT should have been limited finding and killing OBL and Taliban cronies.  His foray into Iraq destroyed the balance counterbalance of Iraq and Iran beating each other up.   And BTW how many $T's did we spend in Iraq?  When thinking this though, I hope you come to the same conclusion I have.  Weapons of Mass Destruction?   

[Canuck Conservative]

Part of the problem with Afghanistan was that Pakistan, allegedly the US's "great ally in the War on Terror", was quietly helping the Taliban and OBL behind the scenes.

And the US fully knew about it, but couldn't say or do anything about it, because Pakistan controlled the only air-supply corridor into land-locked Afghanistan, which the US military obviously was dependent on.

What a cluster, doomed to failure ...

 

[Hoodat]

Respectfully disagree...

WOT should have been limited finding and killing OBL and Taliban cronies.  His foray into Iraq destroyed the balance counterbalance of Iraq and Iran beating each other up.   And BTW how many $T's did we spend in Iraq?  When thinking this though, I hope you come to the same conclusion I have.  Weapons of Mass Destruction?   

Afghanistan and Iraq are two totally different theaters.  And regardless of whether Bush should have gone in or not, that has zero to do with what policies Baraq Obama put in place in 2009, which is what the lead post is about.