Watchdog blames Ghani for politicizing ANSDF which led to collapse

The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction [SIGAR] releasing a report stated that Ghani’s decisions led to weakening the Afghanistan Army which reaulted to collapse as the National Day of Armed Forces, Feb 28, arrives.

SIGAR added that despite corruption and the dependence of army to the US, Ghani’s decisions to appoint his loyalists and frequently change the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces [ANDSF] leaders weakend the morale and trust in them.

“Additionally, the Afghan government failed to develop a national security strategy following the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Instead, former President Ashraf Ghani frequently changed ANDSF leaders and appointed loyalists, often on the basis of ethnicity, which politicized the ANSDF. This constant turnover weakened chains of command, morale, and trust in the ANDSF,” SIGAR said.

“Young,well-trained, educated, and professional ANDSF officers who grew up under U.S. tutelage were marginalized and their ties to the U.S. became a liability.”

The report emphasized that the US spent 20 years spending $90 billion to create an army resembling to its own, but ANDSF lacked equepment, management and skills.

According to SIGAR, ANDSF did not have the logistical capability of moving stockpiles of US- provided weapons and supplies by ground quickly enough to meet operational demands, it had to rely on a thinly stretched Afghan Air Force to do so.

ANDSF collapsed as Ashraf Ghani fled the country back in mid-August 2021.