The collapse of Afghanistan last August left the world reeling. How had more than 20 years of investment been undone so quickly? On Wednesday, the United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released its investigation, and I talked with our frequent contributor on global security issues, Anna Mulrine Grobe, about it. 

The main takeaway, Anna says, is that the collapse of Afghan security forces was foreseeable, and foreseen. The Taliban were adept at exploiting the situation, but the failure happened well before the advance on Kabul. 

How did so much money and effort do so little? 

The report concludes that the U.S. government didn’t have the will to do the hard work that needed to be done. For Anna’s part, she saw “so many smart minds who were applying themselves to fixing this.” But the lack of trust and honesty gave it no real foundation.