The United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has released its final report on the 20-year war and reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, concluding that American policies and negotiations with the Taliban critically weakened Afghanistan’s state structure by sidelining the elected Afghan government.
According to the report, between 2002 and 2021 the United States allocated $144.7 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction, while an additional $763 billion was spent on military operations. Despite this massive investment, the report finds that reconstruction efforts were undermined by poor planning, lack of accountability, and systemic corruption within Afghan institutions.
SIGAR identifies corruption within the Afghan government as the single greatest obstacle to reconstruction. Despite spending nearly $90 billion on Afghan security forces, the forces remained heavily dependent on foreign military support. Following the US withdrawal, Afghan security units collapsed rapidly, exposing the existence of thousands of ghost soldiers and employees who existed only on payroll records.
The report details the scale of military assistance provided to Afghan forces, including 147,000 vehicles, thousands of military systems, 427,300 weapons, and 162 aircraft. After the US withdrawal, equipment worth approximately $7.1 billion was left behind in Afghanistan.
US-funded counter-narcotics efforts also failed to deliver results. Despite spending $7.3 billion on anti-drug programs, opium production and trafficking continued to expand. Similarly, stabilization programs costing $4.7 billion produced only limited and unsustainable development outcomes.
The human cost of the conflict remains severe. The report states that 2,450 US soldiers were killed and 20,700 wounded during the war. Following the American withdrawal, the US allocated $14.2 billion for the relocation of Afghan refugees to the United States.
Despite the Taliban takeover, financial flows into Afghanistan continued. Over the past four years, $3.83 billion in aid has been provided to Afghanistan under Taliban rule. In a single quarter ending March 2025, the Taliban-controlled administration received $120 million.
The report further notes that international donors committed $8.1 billion for United Nations–managed projects after the US withdrawal, while six projects worth $1.5 billion remained active under the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund. It adds that the Taliban administration continued to collect taxes and levies on humanitarian assistance, raising concerns over indirect financial benefits to the regime.
SIGAR concludes that the exclusion of the Afghan government from peace negotiations with the Taliban, combined with flawed reconstruction strategies and unchecked corruption, significantly contributed to the rapid collapse of Afghan state institutions and the failure to achieve long-term stability in the country.
