The Biden administration has stunningly asked for $3.6 billion more for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan even after the country has fallen to the Taliban and Americans have spent nearly $1 trillion for a 20-year failed war.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko noted the request in a letter that accompanied a report, discussing the failures of the reconstruction process in the terrorist-led country according to Fox Business.
“Despite the U.S. troop withdrawal, the Biden administration has requested more than $3 billion for
Afghanistan’s reconstruction in the coming year,” Sopko shockingly asserted. The White House has included in its budget for fiscal year 2022 a jaw-dropping request for $3.3 billion to be paid to Afghan security forces. The Department of Defense would give the money to the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghan Air Force, and the Afghan Special Security Forces. As a reminder, these were the entities that capitulated and surrendered to the Taliban.Additionally, $364 million was requested that would go toward development assistance promoted by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
A White House fact sheet claimed in June that those funds would go towards “improving access to essential services for Afghan citizens, promoting economic growth, fighting corruption and the narcotics trade, improving health and education service delivery, supporting women’s empowerment, enhancing conflict resolution mechanisms, supporting the Afghan-led peace process and bolstering Afghan civil society.”
Biden has been asked by Fox News if his administration still wants those funds after Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban. They have not received an answer on the issue.
The requested funds are in addition to $145 billion that is already being spent on rebuilding and a further $837 billion that has been allotted for fighting.
The U.S. government can’t even handle the massive amount of money that is already being used to fund a now-defunct war. But they just keep pouring more money into the effort. The previously mentioned report states that there was “pressure to spend” money that was “excessive” during the period spanning 2010 to 2012.
“I’d talk to infantry commanders and ask what they need, and they’d say, ‘Turn this money off. We’re having to look for people and projects to spend money on,'” a former senior official with the United States Agency for International Development candidly told SIGAR.
Projects were constantly approved through the U.S. Army’s Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) during that period. The report found that CERP “struggled to move beyond confirming project completion to ascertain whether it was achieving the intended effect.”
“Twenty years later, much has improved, and much has not,” the report stated. “If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that can sustain itself and pose little threat to U.S. national security interests, the overall picture is bleak.”
Joe Biden was the co-author of the Afghanistan Freedom and Support Act of 2002 that authorized the original reconstruction and security payments for Afghanistan – 19 years ago
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 16, 2021
“When you look at how much we spent and what we got for it, it’s mind-boggling,” a former senior Defense Department official noted to SIGAR.
“The extraordinary costs were meant to serve a purpose—though the definition of that purpose evolved over time,” SIGAR’s report contended. The shifting goals included defeating al-Qaeda, crippling the Taliban, preventing other terrorist groups from gaining a foothold in Afghanistan, and assisting with the establishment of a new Afghan government.
“[A]fter 13 years of oversight, the cumulative list of systemic challenges SIGAR and other oversight bodies have identified is staggering,” the report said in reference to the handling of Afghanistan.
Even more alarming are figures calculated by Brown University’s Costs of War Project. They claim the overall cost of the ware is more than $2.26 trillion.
President Biden kept the spending spigots on Monday when he pledged half a billion dollars to help refugees fleeing from Afghanistan.
Biden was mocked for wanting to throw more money at Afghanistan:
