Afghanistan, the stages of the US campaign that lasted twenty years
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Afghanistan.
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16 August 2021 A lightning-fast conquest by the Taliban: 10 days to wipe out the 20 years of the US-led Western military operation. No resistance was opposed to the militias. The Afghan army did not appear capable or ready to react.
Yet in the last 20 years the coalition has invested billions of dollars with a part destined precisely for the training of the Afghan military forces.
In these two decades, Italy has spent 8.7 billion euros, of which 840 million relating to direct contributions to the Afghan army, the same that in the weeks following the withdrawal of the international contingents suffered heavy defeats in the clashes with the Taliban as stated in the detailed report of the Milex Observatory.
According to a 2019 study by Brown University, reported by the BBC, the total US spending in Afghanistan and Pakistan was 978 billion dollars in addition to the 2,300 soldiers killed in this long period.
According to a US intelligence report, the UK spent 30 billion and Germany 19 billion dollars.
The United States, between 2010 and 2012, with 100 thousand soldiers in Afghanistan, spent about 100 billion dollars a year. The costs decreased when the offensive operations against the Taliban insurgents moved on to the training of Afghan forces. At the same time, however, funds for reconstruction and aid to the civilian population must be added. The US State Department, along with the International Development Agency (USAID) and other federal agencies, are estimated to have spent $ 44 billion.