The $148 billion failure: Watchdog's final report excoriates America's attempt to rebuild Afghanistan

After nearly two decades of oversight, SIGAR will conclude its work early next year.

By Thomas Novelly
Senior Reporter
December 3, 2025
Afghanistan
Defense Department

More than $148 billion was spent by the U.S. government in its failed attempt to build a free Afghanistan, according to the final report by the official watchdog office, whose careful documentation of waste and fraud, and its warnings of Taliban resurgence, went largely unheeded.

For 17 years, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, tracked every dollar allocated to the country for security, development, and humanitarian aid. As early as 2012, the office saw signs that the U.S. government and military’s efforts were falling short.

“A lot of people knew this wasn’t working. This war wasn't working. In our quarterly reports we would report on ‘the number of districts falling to the Taliban is increasing’,” Gene Aloise, SIGAR’s acting inspector general, told reporters at a Defense Writers Group roundtable on Wednesday. “Our quarterly reports laid out what was happening, and you could predict the future based on what we were saying.”

Aloise spoke as SIGAR released its final report, a 125-page “forensic audit” that condenses its thousands of pages of analysis and documentation of the Afghanistan-reconstruction effort, which consumed more money than was sent to Europe under the post-World War II Marshall Plan. Per the 2025 defense authorization act, the office will close Jan. 31.

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/12/watchdogs-final-report-highlights-us-govs-148-billion-afghanistan-reconstruction-failure/409909/