John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, threw very cold water on any notion of “mission accomplished” in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The most recent SIGAR quarterly report, released on July 29, tells the same story that SIGAR been telling all along, Sopko told reporters yesterday. “You know, you really shouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been reading our reports for at least the nine years ... that I’ve been there,” he said. “We’ve been highlighting problems with our train, advise and assist mission with the Afghan military.”
The issue, Sopko said, is that “the job” has had many faces since fall 2001. What started as a mission to dismantle the Taliban government that allowed al-Qaeda to train in Afghanistan morphed into a nation-building exercise, an effort to beat back numerous insurgent groups and strengthen a central Afghan government and military that would eventually fend for itself.
Biden, when he announced the withdrawal said that Afghanistan was no longer a place where terrorists could plan and execute attacks against the U.S.. In other words, “mission accomplished,” but Sopko quipped that military leadership on the ground “turned the corner” so many times that they’ve been going in circles for years, and it appears the U.S. has settled back into its original goal in Afghanistan.
