The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published a report this month examining why the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) collapsed so quickly when the United States withdrew from the country in 2021. The report places much of the blame with the U.S.-Taliban Agreement signed by the Trump Administration in 2020:
The ANDSF had long relied on the U.S. military’s presence to protect against large-scale ANDSF losses, and Afghan troops saw the United States as a means of holding their government accountable for paying their salaries. The U.S.-Taliban agreement signed under the Trump administration in 2020 made it clear that this was no longer the case, resulting in a sense of abandonment within the ANDSF and the Afghan population. The agreement set in motion a series of events crucial to understanding the ANDSF’s collapse.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Why the Afghan Security Forces Collapsed (February 2023)
SIGAR concludes that the U.S.-Taliban agreement caused three major consequences that contributed to the collapse of the ANDSF. First, the agreement meant a reduction in U.S. airstrikes against the Taliban, which neutered one of the ANDSF’s major military advantages deep in Taliban territory. Second, the ANDSF was designed in the image of the U.S. military, without much regard for the history or capabilities of Afghan security forces. As a result, the ANDSF depended on U.S. military for critical functions, such maintenance and logistics. Third, the Afghan government failed to devise a national security strategy following the withdrawal of U.S. forces. This lack of coherent strategy was paired with former president Ashraf Ghani’s mercurial staffing decisions, which weakened morale and chains of command and marginalized young, well-trained officers who grew up during the era of U.S. training and restructuring.