evidence: Over the past two decades, the US spent more than a trillion dollars in Afghanistan. It trained Afghan soldiers and police and provided them with modern equipment. [...] American officials have expressed dismay at the now fallen US-backed Afghan government’s inability to protect key cities and regions from the Taliban, despite laying out a strategy for doing so during his communications with Biden and other senior US leaders. [...] "They had all the advantages, they had 20 years of training by our coalition forces, a modern air force, good equipment and weapons," he said, according to sources on the call where he made the comments. "But you can’t buy will and you can’t purchase leadership. And that’s really what was missing in this situation."