[Nevertheless, the SIGAR report said, those forces continue to be hampered by internal problems — such as poor leadership and corruption — as well as by an agile and determined foe that is making it difficult for them to control territory. It noted that more than twice as many Afghan soldiers and police personnel were killed in 2016 as the 2,400 U.S.
By Pamela Constable
 |
Relatives of an Afghan police
official who was reportedly killed fighting Islamic State
militants sit beside his grave
in
|
In
its quarterly report to Congress, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction (SIGAR) urged the Trump administration — which is reviewing U.S.
policy toward Afghanistan at a time of sustained Taliban aggression and
diminished American assistance — to take a hard look at its programs and
priorities and to focus aid more narrowly.
“Security
is the most obvious and urgent challenge” to rebuilding the country after 16
years of war, the report said. It noted that since 2002, 61 percent of the $71
billion in U.S.
Nevertheless,
the SIGAR report said, those forces continue to be hampered by internal
problems — such as poor leadership and corruption — as well as by an agile and
determined foe that is making it difficult for them to control territory. It
noted that more than twice as many Afghan soldiers and police personnel were
killed in 2016 as the 2,400 U.S.
In
an interview here Sunday, Inspector General John F. Sopko noted that senior U.S. U.S. Afghanistan U.S.
“If
there is a stalemate, the question is why and how it can be improved,” Sopko
said. “The why is corruption, the why is poor leadership. . . .
If leadership is poor, the people below don’t care, and they wonder why they
have to die.”
The
report said the Afghan armed forces are also plagued by illiteracy, an
attrition rate of nearly 35 percent and overreliance on highly trained special
forces for routine missions. A previous report by Sopko’s office described
military officers reselling supplies and food intended for combat troops. Such
problems, the new report said, are “corrosive” and can undercut civilian
progress in health care, rule of law and efforts to counter the soaring drug
trade.
A
recent example of the deadly cost of these weaknesses was the Taliban attack on
April 21 that killed at least 140 soldiers on a large Afghan army base in
northern Balkh
One
factor was poor leadership based on nepotism. Sopko said the commander of the Balkh
The
report, titled “Reprioritizing Afghanistan Reconstruction,” also described a
panoply of problems across Afghan society and government that hinder national
reconstruction efforts, even as the international community has pledged
substantial new aid through 2020 and wants as much of that aid to be spent and
managed by Afghan agencies as possible.
“Opium
production stands at near record levels,” the report noted. “Illiteracy and
poverty remain widespread. Corruption reaches into every aspect of national
life. The rule of law has limited reach. Multiple obstacles deter investors. . . .
The ranks of the jobless grow as the economy stagnates.”
Sopko
said that the United States
He
said that the government has made noticeable progress on some U.S.-backed
programs, such as a new anti-corruption task force, but that even this effort
has taken only “baby steps” and needs to prosecute some “mafia big fish” to
bring real change and build public confidence.
In
its recommendations, the report said the White House and Congress need to be
prepared to perform “triage” on less successful projects, impose more rigorous
standards of management and accountability for all programs, prevent aid funds
from inadvertently reaching insurgents, establish a new strategy to combat
opium production and drug trafficking, and decide whether reductions made in U.S.
military and civilian oversight need to be reversed.
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