US Senate Reviews Military Presence in Afghanistan From 2001 to 2008

The Afghanistan War Commission held a session in the US Senate to assess the presence of the United States and its allies in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2008.

In this session, General David Barno, the former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, criticized the lack of coordination between US political and military strategies during that period.

Barno said: “I arrived in Afghanistan in October 2003, almost six months after the invasion of Iraq. Afghanistan was governed at that time by an interim government under Hamid Karzai, but very much still in the grip of warlord armies who controlled more tanks, more rockets, more artillery and more heavy weaponry than the central government.”

Additionally, Henry A. Crumpton, former head of the CIA’s mission in Afghanistan stated during the session that widespread corruption and failure to address fundamental reforms were the main causes of the US and NATO mission’s failure in Afghanistan.

Crumpton said the US approach not only failed to develop Afghanistan but increased its dependency.

He stated: “The systemic corruption grew at rapid speed, and I’m sure you’ve read the Inspector General’s report, the SIGAR report 164-pages, was incredibly damning, where tens of billions of dollars the US government basically siphoned off. And it’s not just about the money; it’s about creating dependency.”

Andrew Natsios, former head of the US Agency for International Development, also noted that a large portion of Washington’s financial aid to Afghanistan was spent on infrastructure and construction projects, but due to a lack of expertise and financial corruption, it had little impact.

Natsios added: “No more than 25 percent of the cabinet ministers were fit to be ministers in the cabinet. The other 75 percent were tribal leaders appointed as cabinet ministers to build political alliances and to keep an eye on them in Kabul.”

US forces and their allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the banner of fighting terrorism. After two decades, the last American soldier left the country on August 31, 2021.