In the annals of warfare and strategy, it would be difficult to find a tale of more woe than America’s Second Afghan War. What to call the US presence in Afghanistan during the first two decades of the twenty-first century: occupation, invasion, intervention, nation-building, counter-terrorism war? All of the above?

Who was the enemy, if the ostensible nemesis for twenty years was handed over billions of dollars-worth of US weapons upon departure? Amidst the lies and the fog of war spanning a score of years, only one minuscule part of the US government remained steadfast on the side of facts: Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Its latest quarterly report was published at the end of January 2025. It is eye-opening.

“Since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, the United States has been the largest donor to the Afghan people”, begins the report. “The United States has appropriated or otherwise made available more than $21.36 billion in assistance to Afghanistan and to Afghan refugees.” Most of this huge number was spent inside the US to resettle Afghans and to tie expensive loose ends remaining from private contractors.

What boggles the mind is $2.63 billion in humanitarian assistance and $558 million in development assistance that the US has provided to the Taliban regime since the withdrawal on August 15, 2021. That is $67 million per month for four years running. Trunks full of cash dollars, a la the First Afghan War (1979-89), are ostensibly still being delivered.

The $21.36 billion for Afghanistan includes $3.50 billion in Afghan central bank assets previously frozen in the US that the US government transferred to a Swiss-based ‘Fund........

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