A new watchdog report has revealed that the United States lost up to $29 billion to fraud, mismanagement, and misuse of resources during its two-decade occupation of Afghanistan.
The findings come from the final report of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), concluding a 17-year investigation into how US taxpayer money was spent during the war and subsequent reconstruction efforts.
SIGAR documented 1,327 cases of waste, fraud, and abuse between $26 billion and $29.2 billion, noting that the vast majority stemmed from mismanagement, inefficiency, and improper asset use.
Fraud accounted for only a small fraction of the loss, but the report stressed that more than $4.6 billion could have been saved through better oversight. The watchdog said Washington pursued “unrealistic goals” in trying to build a stable democracy in Afghanistan, arguing the mission was flawed from the outset and derailed further by corruption and poor planning.
The US poured nearly $145 billion into reconstruction and $763 billion into warfare between 2001 and 2021. Despite the enormous investment, Afghanistan collapsed rapidly after US forces withdrew in 2021, with the Taliban retaking Kabul just weeks after American troops left Bagram Air Base.
The report warns that Afghanistan should serve as a stark lesson for future interventions, urging policymakers to recognise the high risk of failure when undertaking reconstruction on such a scale.
The fallout from the withdrawal remains a political flashpoint in Washington, as both major parties continue to trade blame over the chaotic exit and its long-term consequences.
