Know how much money US spent on ‘failed’ Afghan army

The United States has spent $83 billion over 20 years to build a modern Afghan army, which is Rs. 35.95 trillion and 1.6 million in Pakistani rupee.

According to the French news agency AFP, the United States provided the Afghan army with warplanes, helicopters, drones, armoured vehicles, goggles that see in the dark, in recent days the United States has provided the Afghan army with the latest Black Hawk helicopters.

But when the time came, the Afghan army proved to be no match in front of the Taliban.

According to US Special Inspector General for Reconstruction John Sopko, the Afghan military’s capabilities were misjudged.

He presented a report to Congress last week stating that Afghan troops lacked the ability to use the latest military equipment from the West, with the US military numbering 300,000 and Taliban fighters 70,000. Of these, only 185,000 were soldiers and the rest were policemen.

John Sopko added in his report that only 60 percent of the 185,000 Afghan soldiers were trained, then 25 percent of the Afghan army would leave each year and be replaced by other personnel.

It was also the responsibility of the United States to pay the salaries of the Afghan army, but when the United States announced its withdrawal in April, it handed over the responsibility to the Kabul government.

For months, they have not been paid, and many military units have not received food or ammunition.

Despite spending billions of dollars on training Afghan government forces, its sudden collapse has exposed the Pentagon’s mistakes over the past 20 years.

The United States has spent 83 83 billion training the Afghan army on its own military model. The US military relies heavily on air power and state-of-the-art communications networks. This strategy could not be implemented in a country where only 30% of the population has permanent access to electricity.

Planes, helicopters, drones, armored planes, night-vision goggles: The United States has spared no effort to equip the Afghan army with nails. It also recently provided it with state-of-the-art Black Hawk combat helicopters.

But the vast majority of Afghan soldiers are illiterate, and Afghanistan is a country without the infrastructure to operate this state-of-the-art military equipment, so it is equipped with simple weapons and resists fewer Afghan troops.

According to US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, the United States had misjudged the capabilities of Afghan troops.

For months, Pentagon officials have insisted that the Afghan army has a numerical advantage over the Taliban. According to him, the number of Afghan soldiers is 300,000 while the Taliban are 70,000.

But the numbers were exaggerated, according to the West Point Counterterrorism Center, a leading US military academy in New York.

As of July 2020, the agency estimated that there were 185,000 troops under the Department of Defense, with the rest being members of the police and other security agencies.

According to West Point analysts, only 60 percent of them were trained Afghan soldiers.

They say the number of soldiers fighting was only 96,000.

US officials have repeatedly said they will continue to support the Afghan army after its full withdrawal on August 31. But he never explained how this would work in practice.

During his last visit to Kabul, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the Afghan army would be assisted by the air force.

It also included online training via zoom. But they ignored the fact that a large number of Afghans do not have computers, smartphones or good Wi-Fi.

Many Afghan soldiers appeared on social media to say they had not been paid for months, and in many places their units did not receive food or even weapons.

The premature withdrawal of US troops proved to be the last nail in the coffin.