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US wasted billions of dollars in training Afghan forces: Analyst

Sunday, 19 June 2016 12:20 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 19 June 2016 2:25 AM ]

“The perception of Afghans as far as greater insecurity in the country right now is very valid,” former Pentagon official Michael Maloof says.

A former Pentagon official says the United States has wasted billions of dollars in training Afghan forces, adding if Washington leaves Kabul, it will fall to the Taliban within three days.

Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the US Department of Defense, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on a new report by the Pentagon which revealed that Afghans feel less secure than at any recent time.

The Pentagon report to the US Congress on the war developments in Afghanistan since last December, says Afghans do not feel better protected now. The report says perceptions of security are near all-time lows.

“The perception of Afghans as far as greater insecurity in the country right now is very valid. As the United States pulls back and recedes back towards Kabul, the area that they have vacated gets filled in by the Taliban,” Maloof said.

“Some of Americans tell me who were in Afghanistan that if the United States were to leave Kabul, it would be taken over within three days. And that’s startling statement considering all the money that has been spent to train the Afghan forces and security personnel over the years, and they are still not prepared and able to withstand the Taliban,” he stated.

“The Taliban have also become much more rigid since the death of their lead, Mullah Muhammad Omar… they have become much more militant in nature. And they particularly don’t choose to deal with the existing Afghan government,” the analyst noted.

Last week, US President Barack Obama ordered the military to take on the Taliban more directly and enable Afghan forces battling the militant group, ratcheting up a 15-year conflict that he had promised to end.

The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban regime from power, but after about one and a half decade, the foreign troops have still not been able to establish security in the country.

After becoming the president in 2008, Obama vowed to end the Afghan war -- one of the longest conflicts in US history.

In October last year, Obama announced plans to keep 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan through 2016 and 5,500 in 2017, reneging on his promise to end the war there and bring home most American forces from the Asian country before he leaves office.

According to US officials, Washington would also maintain a large counterterrorism capability of terror drones and Special Operations forces to fight militants in Afghanistan.

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