The United States, when supplying weapons to Ukraine, should take into account its own failed attempts to control military equipment supplied to Afghanistan. John Sopko, US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said this on Monday at a meeting with the Defense Writers Group in Washington, answering questions from a TASS correspondent.
"I can only talk about Afghanistan because I'm involved in it. <...> Afghanistan has had a terrible system [of controlling the supply of weapons and military equipment]. We [the Office of the Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction] and the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense have pointed out in several of our reports [published in recent years] that this system didn't work. I mean, they [the responsible US officials] didn't know where the weapons [transferred by Washington] were, what ended up happening [with some of them]. I can't talk about Ukraine, because I am not in charge of it. All I'm saying is that this lesson should be taken into account," the specialist said.
Sopko is convinced that for the US government, the reports he and his subordinates prepared should be "like flashing [warning] yellow signals." "You as a policymaker should be aware of what happened there [in Afghanistan] and consider whether it will become an issue in Ukraine. All we're saying is this: let's learn from what we've learned from our 20 years in Afghanistan," the US administration auditor stressed.
Doha Accords and US withdrawal
On February 29, 2020, the previous US government, led by President Donald Trump, and the radical Taliban (banned in Russia) signed a peace agreement in Doha. According to the agreements, the United States and its coalition allies pledged to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan within 14 months. The Taliban, in turn, guaranteed that they would not use Afghan territory for actions that threaten the security of the Americans and their allies.
On April 14, 2021, current US President Joe Biden announced that he had decided to terminate the operation in Afghanistan, which is the longest foreign military campaign in American history. The US began this war in October 2001. At the peak of the operation in 2010-2013 the number of Western forces in Afghanistan exceeded 150 thousand people. The withdrawal of US troops began in May 2021. Major US and NATO combat units were withdrawn in 2014.
The Taliban launched a massive operation to take control of Afghanistan after the United States announced in the spring of 2021 its intention to withdraw its forces from the South Asian country. On August 15, 2021, Ghani fled abroad and the Taliban entered Kabul without a fight. US troops left Afghanistan completely by early September 2021, ending their nearly 20-year presence in the country.
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Based on materials from TASS