A review by government watchdog Open the Books finds that the commonly cited $21 billion in U.S. spending 'related to Afghanistan' since the 2021 withdrawal mostly never entered the country. Roughly $8.7 billion went to resettling Afghan evacuees domestically, $5 billion covered other evacuation operations, and $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves remains held outside Afghanistan; only about $3 billion actually funded humanitarian and development programs inside the country.
Because U.S. aid often routes through the UN, NGOs and subcontractors before reaching the ground, tracing individual dollars is difficult, and federal auditors have confirmed at least $11 million reached Taliban-controlled entities, a figure Open the Books says could be higher. Roughly $7 billion in U.S.-funded military equipment also remains in Afghanistan.
Independent oversight of this spending effectively ended with the closure of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which had been the main public accounting mechanism. Open the Books' Rachel O'Brien says some questions can still be answered with confidence, but others no longer can, because the public record is incomplete.
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