The aftermath of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan saw a dramatic turn of events as Taliban effectively sealed political control of Afghanistan.
It took less than a month for Talibani insurgents to sweep across various provinces with minimal resistance from Afghan forces. The Taliban takeover of the country was complete when Kabul fell into the hands of insurgents with the incumbent President Ashraf Ghani leaving the country.
The manner of Taliban takeover of Afghanistan can be cited as one of the big blunders of the United States of America. An intelligence failure which certainly raises questions about the validity of United States lump spending in their 20-year presence in Afghanistan.
As the world braces up for some tectonic changes in geo-political situation, the US has lost quite a fortune in the land which is known as the “graveyard of great empires.”
Post The 9/11, Afghanistan war has cost more than 2-trillion dollars for the “World Police”. According to Brown University, the cost of the war project is estimated to be $2.26 trillion, which means their spending is as big as $300 millions per day in their 20 year presence in the war-torn nation .
The spending which comes from pockets of American taxpayers surpasses the combined net worth of close to 33 billionaires in America having the likes of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
The US has incurred a spending of $800 Billion in direct warfighting cost. On training the Afghan army alone, which folded up easily as the Taliban made inroads, the US spent $85 billion training.
The Afghan Army missed their erstwhile caretaker’s air support, following their withdrawal from Bagram Airfield in July. The advancing Taliban made most of this withdrawal as they were marching towards Kabul.
A cost of $750 million amounts to American taxpayers in payroll for the US soldiers in the war-torn nation .
Keeping the heavy financial spending aside, its “misadventure” in Afghanistan has also resulted in loss of life which can be understood by looking at the numbers.
In order to keep the Taliban at bay, it lost 2,500 soldiers and more than 4,000 civilian contractors. Not to forget the 69,000 Afghan military deaths, 47,000 Afghan civilians and plus 51,000 dead opposition fighters.
A massive cost of $300 billion is on the heads of the American taxpayer to care for 20,000 US casualties in Afghanistan, this cost will further rise.
As we still continue to make sense of the trillions spent in the Afghan war, the money borrowed for Afghan is “an albatross hanging around America’s neck.”
According to Brown University, America paid more than $500 billion in interest for loans in the $2.26 trillion spending. By 2050, the interest alone on Afghan war debt would cost more than $6.5 trillion.
This means every American citizen will be having debt of more than $20,000.
The huge spending is in stark contrast to the way things unfolded in Afghanistan as it was nothing short of a “bloodless coup” which was an embarrassment to Uncle Sam globally.
Today, the United States is working overtime stretching itself to evacuate its civilians from the very land where they made this lump spending to gain control.
The scenes of desperation at Kabul Airport where people are clinging on to a taxiing aircraft has unfolded right in the presence of 6000 US troops stationed in the airport.
As thousands of US nationals still wait to be evacuated, the recent blast at Kabul Airport is certainly not a good omen which again underlines their need of hour to undergo speedy evacuation.
As Uncle Sam bids goodbye to Afghanistan, its trillion dollar spending would continue to be subject of criticism both back home and abroad .