The decision to withdraw forces by two US commanders in chief was the major factor that caused a domino effect leading to the collapse of the Afghan military which left the country open to the Taliban to resume control, a special investigative report released Thursday concluded.

The 113-page report answers the question of what went wrong in Afghanistan, and the conclusions are damning. In effect, the report said the US wasted its money, to say nothing of lives lost.

“The decision by two U.S. presidents to withdraw U.S. military forces from Afghanistan fundamentally altered every subsequent decision by U.S. government agencies,” the report said, and that “ultimately accelerated the collapse of the ANDSF (Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces) in August 2021.

“But the stage had been set for that collapse long before—by the failure of the U.S. and Afghan governments to create an independent and self-sustainable ANDSF, despite 20 years and $90 billion of international support.”

The report was compiled by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction at the request of the US House Committee on Oversight and Reform as well as the US House Armed Services Committee.

The two committees wanted to know why the US and its allies lost in Afghanistan despite almost 20 years of fighting support, training and billions of dollars spent.

Again, the report returned to the central flaw in the US strategy -- the untimely withdrawal over a period of years of its military forces.

“Due to the ANDSF’s dependency on U.S. military forces, the decision to withdraw all U.S. military personnel and dramatically reduce U.S. support to the ANDSF destroyed the morale of Afghan soldiers and police,” the report said.

The Afghan forces relied on the US military to protect it against "large-scale ANDSF losses" and to hold the government accountable for ensuring the ANDSF were paid their salaries, the report said.

“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 report said.

In August 2021, the ANDSF, which was supposed to be “independent, self-sustaining and able to defend against internal and external threats,” collapsed when the US made the decision to withdraw from the country, the report said.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, then commander of the International Security Assistance Force, had warned the Senate Armed Services Committee as early as 2014 that once coalition forces withdrew, the Afghan security forces “will begin to deteriorate.”

Then an agreement was signed that ended US military support.

"On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a bilateral agreement in Doha, Qatar, stipulating that the United States would withdraw all U.S. military personnel and contractors from Afghanistan,” the report said.

“The United States signed the agreement despite the fact that the ANDSF was still dependent on the U.S. military for support.

“In return, the Taliban promised not to attack the United States or allow attacks from Afghanistan on the United States or its allies and to enter into intra-Afghan peace negotiations.”

Within a few months of the signing, the Taliban went on the offensive.

When US President Joe Biden announced on April 14, 2021 that the US would withdraw all forces by Sept. 11, 2021, the prediction proved true -- Afghanistan was doomed. (Anadolu Agency)

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