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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Is the Afghan National Army Performing So Miserably?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-is-the-afghan-national-army-performing-so-miserably?ref=scrollWhy Is the Afghan National Army Performing So Miserably?
FOLDING FAST
Always dependent on the U.S. military for air support and logistical help, the countrys army is virtually helpless on its own.
James A. Warren
Published Aug. 15, 2021 5:04AM ET
snip//
The United States spent more than $70 billion dollars to train and equip the Afghan National Security Forcesboth police and armybut in the face of the recent Taliban offensive, dozens of units have simply vanished into thin air, deserting their posts and wandering off. Others have reached accommodation with local Taliban leaders, and turned over their positions without firing a single round. Still other government units have surrendered after they were surrounded and cut off by insurgents, or because they were betrayed by relief force commanders who decided it would be best to forego their mission entirely and call it a day.
So much for fighting spirit and military cohesion...
Why is the Afghan National Army collapsing? On a tactical and operational level, the answer is simple: the Afghan National Army has never severed its umbilical cord to U.S. logistics, air support, and intelligence gathering, even though the main mission of U.S. forces in the country since 2014 has been to prepare the national army and police to operate independently. Without these assets, government forces simply cannot stand up against a highly-motivated, well-supplied enemy like the Taliban.
snip//
Like the government in Kabul, the Afghan National Army is drenched in dysfunction, division, and most of all, debilitating corruption. The government has failed to address these problems for years. Nor did the senior leadership of Asraf Ghanis administration develop a coherent politico-military strategy for tackling the Taliban on its own, though it has known for years that such a strategy would be required for long-term survival. Kabuls internal paralysis and tensions ensure that even if it had a coherent plan, it could not implement it.
As Anthony Cordesman, an American strategic analyst known for his clinical detachment, wrote in a recent report for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, the government in Kabul is dominated by leaders more interested in competing for power than in the nations future, and it cannot govern or make effective use of its funding, most of which comes from U.S. and outside aid. The political structure of the Afghan central government remains a corrupt and divided mess.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-is-the-afghan-national-army-performing-so-miserably?ref=scroll
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)Heck, they got cool uniforms and room and board. All of that equipment is now in the hands
of the Taliban. The US taxpayer dollars paid for the arms and equipment. What a colossal
boondoggle. I can only hope our leaders learn something after so many silly and costly
attempts at nation building.
The Afghan Army knew the Taliban would take over.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)That includes the rank-and-file and those who lead them. Ive always gotten the sense that wasnt the case here. Why should we continue to fight and die for a lost cause?
George Bush just said the consequences of leaving will be unbelievably bad. Of course they will be! What else to expect after 20 years of carrying this nation on our backs while the locals basically did nothing and their government was corrupt and inept? Would anything change if we stayed for four more administrations? I doubt it.
Bush just needs to keep quiet on this. If anyone owns this debacle, its him.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)The problem is that "nation" and"country" are not necessarily synonyms.
"Nation" is also tribal, cultural, and ethnic groups. They don't feel any allegiance to the country of Afghanistan. I think very few people there do feel that way there.
It takes a strong central government to make "nation" and "country" be the same thing, and that hasn't happened there and probably never will.
babylonsister
(170,963 posts)Sure seems like a boondoggle now. I am happy we're getting out, as messy as it's going to be.
Scrivener7
(50,774 posts)Here's a cost estimate for both Afghanistan and Iraq:
Estimated amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war costs that the United States has debt-financed as of 2020: $2 trillion.
Estimated interest costs by 2050: Up to $6.5 trillion.
The wars end; the costs dont
Amount Bilmes (source, listed below) estimates the United States has committed to pay in health care, disability, burial and other costs for roughly 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq veterans: more than $2 trillion.
Period those costs will peak: after 2048.
Source:
Much of the data below is from Linda Bilmes of Harvard Universitys Kennedy School and from the Brown University Costs of War project. Because the United States between 2003 and 2011 fought the Afghanistan and Iraq wars simultaneously, and many American troops served tours in both wars, some figures as noted cover both post-9/11 U.S. wars.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-cost-of-america-e2-80-99s-two-decades-in-afghanistan/ar-AANm2pl?ocid=uxbndlbing
malaise
(267,821 posts)The Taliban are part of Afghanistan - not some foreign army.
You are correct - the Afghan Army knew the Taliban would take over. Americans really thought they would side with them over their own? There are no good guys here.
To be honest I don't give a flying fuck - stop the wars and look after your own citizens - that's all the national security needed.
panader0
(25,816 posts)The US is at fault here. The US wants to impart democracy to the Afghans and
abandon it here at home. Crazy.
MyOwnPeace
(16,888 posts)but yours really hit home.
The irony - we wanted to have the Afghans accept democracy and we have SO many (yeah, YOU, RepubliQans!) here fighting against it!
malaise
(267,821 posts)Must be the ReTHUG version - they want to secure power for themselves - it is the US (and other Western powers) national interests that matter not the interests of any people anywhere on this planet. They have put more than a few military backed dictators in power to achieve those ends. Now they are brazen enough to try it in the USA.
Everything we know about international relations and democracy need a rethink .
We have all been fooled for way too long.
Response to panader0 (Reply #12)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
JI7
(89,176 posts)but we see they probably agree with Taliban when it comes to treatment of females.
malaise
(267,821 posts)The Evangelicals, Incels and more than a few others share the identical views on women and girls.
malaise
(267,821 posts)The Taliban are part of Afghanistan - not some foreign army.
You are correct - the Afghan Army knew the Taliban would take over. Americans really thought they would side with them over their own? There are no good guys here.
To be honest I don't give a flying fuck - stop the wars and look after your own citizens - that's all the national security needed.
PJMcK
(21,921 posts)Afghanistan's government and military were totally corrupt and dysfunctional. Yet we poured billions of dollars and thousands of lives into a political black hole.
Not such great strategic thinking.
Nay
(12,051 posts)It was a grift all along.
Kaleva
(36,146 posts)True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Years. Your article stated clearly why. President Obama pulled us out of Iraq. We spent many more years in Afghanistan.
We should never have been in either country and we know who is to blame for that. Trump made these plans so you can blame Republicans for both beginning and end. President Biden is doing the right thing.
We have deeper problems to solve here.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)1. Corrupt Afgani government officials stole the troops' pay.
2. Corrupt Afgani government officials and senior military officers stole the money for guns, ammo and equipment. Also, they sold military stuff to the Taliban.
3. When the Afghan National Army soldiers ran out of ammo and got no backup and no air support, the Taliban offered them the deal of a lifetime. Surrender, join us, and we let you live.
doc03
(35,148 posts)TheRickles
(2,000 posts)Two good quotes:
"The U.S. designed the Afghan state to meet Washington's counterterrorism interests, not the interests of Afghans, and what we see today is the result,"
"There was not at that timethere is now nota military solution to terrorism," she said, "which was ostensibly the reason for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan."
Ford_Prefect
(7,824 posts)to suit their fantasies of neo-Christian "liberation". They did the same for Iraq as for Afghanistan assuming their model of democracy was universally applicable. Neo-Cons live in a Disney-like version of cold-war America in which the divisions and solutions are very black and white. They quite badly misunderstood the ethos and subtleties of the Muslim world, and broadly discounted the degree of corruption in the governments of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They also went in hungry to exploit regional resources much as a colonial power.
When things went badly post-invasion they made many of the same assumptions as a previous Pentagon & State Department during Vietnam. They also could not accept or deal with the idea that they might have been wrong in their planning assumptions. Instead of reacting to the realities of the situation they covered up their failures, which is what the US has been doing for the last 20 years in Afghanistan and Iraq...
...And now in Yemen along with much of Africa.
Irish_Dem
(45,636 posts)Many people got very rich off of this scam.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,636 posts)Historic NY
(37,449 posts)Competition for power.
mopinko
(69,806 posts)when we invaded in the 1st place, we sent a dozen guys w cia phones and bribes in to line up the war lords against their old enemies.
they showed us where they were, and we called in bombs.
then we basically bribed people, soldiers, police, but also, i assume, vendors of all things.
we pay you extra to pretend to be on our side.
i'm not sure it would be different in any other country. it's not a path to change.
harumph
(1,871 posts)At least not paid on a reliable basis for YEARS running. These people are dirt poor and needed a regular paycheck.
So, with all due respect to pander0 above - they obviously weren't in it "...for the paycheck." You can bet the
warlords got paid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/world/asia/afghan-police-pay.html