The United States wasted billions of dollars trying to stabilize fragile parts of Afghanistan from 2001-2017 and some efforts caused more harm than good, a US government watchdog said Thursday.

A report by the office of the Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that Washington had set unrealistic expectations for itself after the US-led invasion in 2001 and massively overestimated its ability to build and reform government institutions.

"Despite some heroic efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2017, the program mostly failed," Special Inspector General John Sopko said as he presented the report in Washington.

"This happened for a number of reasons, including the establishment of a set of unrealistic expectations about what could be achieved in just a few years' time."

The report found that the military pressured aid groups to build schools and infrastructure in areas that were still being contested by the Taliban, leading to the failure of many projects.

Most of the $4.7 billion in stabilization funds was spent after 2009, when a surge in troops to Afghanistan saw large area cleared of the Taliban -- a rush of Western experts then tried to build institutions in these areas.

But the "large sums of stabilization dollars the United States devoted to Afghanistan in search of quick gains often exacerbated conflicts, enabled corruption and bolstered support for insurgents," the report states.

"Opportunities for corruption and elite capture abounded, making many of those projects far more harmful than helpful," it adds.

The SIGAR analysis found that Washington had set expectations and programs not properly tailored for Afghanistan, and noted that successes in stabilizing Afghan districts rarely lasted longer than the physical presence of coalition troops and civilians.

"Under immense pressure to quickly stabilize insecure districts, US government agencies spent far too much money, far too quickly, in a country woefully unprepared to absorb it," SIGAR noted.

Pentagon set to nominate commando to head forces in Afghanistan
Washington (AFP) May 22, 2018 - The Pentagon is set to nominate a special operations soldier as the next commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, a military official told AFP on Tuesday.

"We anticipate there's an announcement coming" that Lieutenant General Scott Miller has been nominated for the role, the official said.

Miller, 57, has for two years headed up the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and has lengthy experience working with some of America's most elite fighters.

If confirmed by the Senate, Miller would take over from General John Nicholson, who is rotating out of his post after a two-year deployment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported Miller's selection, he was a captain overseeing a group of Delta Force commandos in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.

That incident was made famous by the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."

Miller's deployment to Afghanistan, which would see him promoted to four-star general, comes at a time when local security forces are still struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban and the Islamic State jihadist group has conducted several high-profile suicide attacks.

Currently, there are about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, providing the main component of the NATO mission there to support and train local forces.

Some of the US forces are involved in counterterrorism operations, particularly against the local IS group.

In a statement, the Pentagon said: "We have nothing to announce at this time. We do not discuss internal deliberations."

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'Few signs of progress' in Afghanistan: US inspector
Washington (AFP) May 21, 2018
Upbeat assessments of an improving security situation in Afghanistan do not line up with the facts on the ground, a US government watchdog said Monday, pointing to "few signs of progress" in the war-torn nation. Top US officials and military commanders insist the Afghan security forces - which have suffered thousands of casualties and are beset with low morale and corruption - are now doing a better job of maintaining order. But the Taliban still control swaths of the country, are staging repe ... read more