The Biden administration has cast new doubts it will uphold the Taliban peace deal agreed to by his predecessor, which requires the US to totally withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of April. The 20-year-long, over-$2 trillion war has been characterized by one fiasco after another.
A new report by the US Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) has found that US forces in Afghanistan failed not only to bill coalition partners for rotary-wing transport services for years, they didn’t even record the information, making calculating the loss impossible.
“The DoD paid $773 million for air transportation services provided to US personnel, Pay-to-Play Coalition partners, and Lift and Sustain Coalition partners from September 2017 through September 2020,” IG auditors noted in the report, released on Monday. “Because USFOR-A did not receive or track Coalition partner flight usage data, the exact cost of air transportation services provided to Pay-to-Play Coalition partners cannot be determined.”
The incident recalls another logistics mishap from the Saudi-led operation in Yemen, which the US supported in various ways until last month when the Biden administration pulled the plug. From 2015 until December 2018, however, the US provided the Saudi-led coalition air forces with aerial refueling services from tanker aircraft. In September 2017, CENTCOM told The Intercept it didn’t track which aircraft it refueled were American or part of the coalition, resulting in underbilling to the Saudi and Emirate governments.
In February 2020, the US signed a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban militant group to end its involvement in the 19-year-long war. US forces have steadily withdrawn amid a shaky ceasefire, although the Taliban has yet to reach a similar deal with the Afghan government in Kabul, which it views as a puppet of Washington.
“That was not a very solidly negotiated deal that the president, the former president worked out,” Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on March 16. “We’re in consultation with our allies as well as the government, and that decision is in process now.”
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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