The country has “achieved a turning point” so many times that it has turned 360 degrees, said John Sopko, the US government’s general inspector for reconstruction in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, John Sopko, US government inspector general for reconstruction in Afghanistan, praised the 20-year-old US campaign in Afghanistan, saying arrogance and deceit were the main causes of failure, TASS reports.
“I am referring to two words that can describe Afghanistan. One is the arrogance that we can somehow take a country that was in a state of ruin in 2001 and turn it into little Norway in the used time frame. And the second is deceit”, the auditor of the American administration said at an Internet briefing for the Washington Defense Writers Group.
We were exaggerating, more than exaggerating. And our generals, and our ambassadors, and all our officials – before Congress and the American people, saying that we are about to achieve a turning point. We have ‘achieved a turning point’ so many times that we have turned 360 degrees. We are like a top. This is the problem of Afghanistan”.
In his opinion, this problem is typical not only for Afghanistan.
“I believe that you will find it in other countries where we entered. We must be honest. With myself and with the American people, who are paying for it. Not only with money, but also with blood”, Sopko said.
In particular, he criticized Washington’s attempts to form a strong central government in Afghanistan.
“We came to Afghanistan thinking that we will create a strong central government, this will be the focus of our attention. And it was a mistake”, the specialist believes.
In addition, he stressed that American efforts to eradicate the illicit production and trade of drugs in Afghanistan were a “complete failure”.
“What you see in Afghanistan is a testament to the problems of our own government. We have a disgusting staffing system. We have a disgusting public procurement system. And we are learning in a disgusting way the lessons of major actions like the ones we took in Afghanistan”, Sopko added.