The issue is at the center of convoluted discussions between Biden administration officials trying to develop workarounds for the myriad of issues associated with President Biden`s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops — and the contractors who support them — from Afghanistan. The withdrawal is expected to be completed between early and mid-July. In recent weeks, it has been hoped that the United States could leave contractors in the country to get the air force, according to a senior Afghan official who recently spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity. And Kabul also hoped to turn the young militias that had sprung up in the Afghan countryside into guard-like peacekeepers to prevent the spread of the movement. Afghan security forces rely on these contractors to maintain their equipment, manage supply chains, and train their military and police to use the state-of-the-art equipment the U.S. has purchased for them. Military analysts trying to understand the staggering collapse of the Afghan military increasingly point to the departure of contractors from the US government, which began a month ago, as one of the most important turning points. “Everyone is trying to evacuate their employees, their colleagues who worked for them, and the only guy left is me. I`ve tried a lot, but I`m not coming out of Afghanistan,” Ismail told ABC News, adding, “Don`t leave me behind. Even if the contracts are transferred, several senior U.S.

commanders and policymakers say it`s unclear how many foreign entrepreneurs will choose to continue working in Afghanistan when the U.S. security umbrella is gone, or whether those companies will bear the risk. An assessment by the inspectors general of the Pentagon, the State Department and the United States last fall. The Agency for International Development noted that labor shortages, coronavirus restrictions and lack of oversight made it difficult for U.S. military officials to hold contractors accountable for performance standards. “The [Afghan army] could still conduct operations without subcontractors – they could fight, maneuver, fire, all the bases. But without the ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] safety net and air support, many Afghan soldiers did not want to compete backwards with the Taliban. The State Department announced earlier this month a new refugee program that allows Afghans who do not meet the requirements of a special immigrant visa to apply for refugee status. These include interpreters and other entrepreneurs who have worked for the U.S. for less than two years or worked for U.S.-funded projects but not directly for the government, as well as Afghan journalists for U.S. media.

Since 2010, the Defense Ministry has provided more than $8.5 billion to develop a capable and sustainable Afghan air force and its special operations wing, but U.S. politicians and commanders have always known that both would need ongoing and expensive logistical support from contractors for aircraft maintenance and maintenance personnel training. the Office of the Inspector General concluded in a report in February. “We built the Afghan army in our image to be an army operating with air support and intelligence [and] whose backbone is entrepreneurs,” David Sedney, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, said in a recent interview with Foreign Policy. According to the Pentagon`s latest quarterly census report, last updated in July, there were nearly 7,800 Defense Ministry contractors in Afghanistan, about 5,100 of whom were third-country nationals or locals. This number was much higher in the past; in 2012, for example, more than 88,000 Pentagon officials said one possible solution would be to transfer to the Afghan government contracts with private companies currently paid for by the United States. Under such an agreement, U.S. and foreign entrepreneurs would remain in Afghanistan, but they would be paid by Afghan officials in overseas aid, mostly from the United States.

But although retirement left him “heartless,” he said, he remains proud of his previous occupation. Of course, it`s even worse for women. My sister is the principal of a private school. She has returned to work only once since the arrival of the Taliban. She handed over her notes and left instructions to some of the men who worked under her. And then she left; she thinks it will be forever. We are hearing about other schools that are closed across the country because the women who taught there cannot come back. Problems with contractor support increased long before Biden`s decision in April to withdraw all U.S. military personnel and contractors. Dealing with contractors is just one of the many pressing problems created by the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The CIA is struggling to ensure that it can gather information about potential threats from Afghanistan once the U.S. military presence is over. Experts told Foreign Policy that Afghan troops could still do ground combat bases without U.S. contractors, and they even added some level of capability in repairing military vehicles. What has not changed is the extent of the evacuees. For now, Ismail and his young family will have to wait in Kabul in a state of great fear of what will follow. But it was the U.S.-supplied air force that gave Afghan troops their edge over Taliban fighters, and without maintenance on the ground, the army quickly collapsed. “The gravity of this moment cannot be overstated. Our generation is facing its Saigon moment, and we must act. We see an irreversible scenario in which thousands of SIVs (special immigrant visa applicants) stand behind Taliban lines and have no hope of fleeing,” said Chris Purdy, director of the veterans` advocacy group for American Ideals, referring to America`s exit from the Vietnam War.

In the years that followed, he was unable to find another Global Integrated Security USA employee to verify his service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract because the company had disbanded without contact information for the Afghans it had left behind. The Afghan government has always relied heavily on foreign entrepreneurs and trainers. This spring, there were more than 18,000 Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan, including 6,000 Americans, 5,000 Afghans and 7,000 from other countries, 40 percent of whom are responsible for logistics, maintenance or training tasks, according to John F.