The Coming Collapse of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is in trouble. The U.S. lost more than 2,000 soldiers, spent more than half a trillion dollars and 15 years to defeat the Taliban and rebuild Afghanistan. Today the country is on the verge of collapse.

John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, delivered his quarterly report to Congress on April 29 and its almost 300 pages are a grim report of a troubled country. The Afghan Unity Government has fallen to infighting while trying to resolve a constitutional crisis.

“Survival will be an achievement for the National Unity Government,” said Nicholas Haysom, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.

As the government fights, the security of the country deteriorates. A resurgent Taliban announced its annual spring offensive and quickly made good on its threats. On April 19 a suicide bomber in Kabul killed 64 and wounded 350. The revitalized militant group took a page from the Islamic State and now tracks their activities on a new English language website.

“Fighting in 2016 will be more intense than 2015, continuing a decade-long trend of deteriorating security,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper recently told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.

“The Unity Government is in trouble,” U.S. Special Operations intelligence veteran Malcolm Nance told War Is Boring when asked about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. “Governments can come and go at this point. The big question is will the military be able to sustain the Taliban destabilizing the government and the absence of American forces.”

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Image courtesy of Getty