SIGAR HIGH-RISK LIST

HIGH-RISK LIST
BACKGROUND FOR THE NEW
ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESS
With the new Administration and Congress coming together to address one of America’s
most enduring security endeavors, this is a prime opportunity to reflect on how the United
States got to this point. Control of America’s longest war and largest reconstruction effort
will be handed over to a new Administration and a new Congress in January 2017. With
more than $115 billion appropriated for reconstruction alone, and with billions more
requested, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is issuing
this report to highlight the greatest threats that SIGAR has identified to the mission in
Afghanistan and to the U.S. taxpayer.
To achieve the goals of defeating al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and ensuring that Afghanistan
never again becomes a safe haven for terrorism, the United States, the international community,
and Afghanistan have paid a high price. From October 2001 to December 1, 2016, a
total of 2,247 U.S. military personnel have died in support of operations there, while more
than 20,000 others were wounded in action. These numbers do not include U.S. civilian
casualties or military casualties that occurred in other countries in support of the U.S. mission
in Afghanistan. 4 A Brown University report on the human cost of war estimates that
more than 3,500 contractors, 1,100 allied troops, 30,000 Afghan military and police personnel,
and 31,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. 5
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in this country, the United States
has maintained an active presence in Afghanistan. While the initial focus was on Americanled
military operations to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime that sheltered them,
the United States also undertook the largest reconstruction effort in its history to rebuild
Afghanistan and help build the government institutions and security forces necessary to
prevent it from again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.
Adjusted for inflation, the $115 billion in U.S. appropriations provided to reconstruct
Afghanistan exceeds the funds committed to the Marshall Plan, the U.S. aid program that,
between 1948 and 1952, helped 16 West European countries recover in the aftermath of
World War II. However, U.S. assistance to Afghanistan differs from the Marshall Plan in one
key respect: whereas the Marshall Plan was a civilian effort operating in a post-war environment,
over 60% of Afghanistan’s reconstruction funds have been spent to support the
Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in their efforts to secure a country
still facing a determined insurgency.
Including U.S. war funding unrelated to reconstruction, U.S. appropriations for
Afghanistan now total more than three quarters of a trillion dollars—not including the $43.7
billion requested for FY 2017. 6
4
SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL I AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION