Why is Afghanistan falling to the Taliban so fast?

[Ramsey Barner]

Far from representing a reason for Joe Biden to halt the withdrawal, however, this rapid deterioration in Afghan security has exposed the bankruptcy of US policies for at least the past 15 years – and the stark unwillingness to tell the truth by a generation of senior US leaders.

[snip]

Behind the scenes America’s senior leaders have known, almost from the beginning, that the war was unwinnable, that the Afghan government was fatally corrupt, and that the Afghan security forces would never be up to the task. Instead of acknowledging reality, instead of coming clean to the American people, they hid the truth or outright lied about it.

[snip]

As awful as the security situation in Afghanistan is today, it was a disaster almost two decades in the making. The US should have admitted the truth long ago and ended the war even before the conclusion of the Bush administration. Above all, America must permanently cease waging “nation-building” wars, restricting deployments abroad only to fights directly related to US national security.

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/14/afghanistan-taliban-us-troops|

[bearsfootball516]

1. It's called the Graveyard of Empires for a reason.

[pwb]

2. They like their own people and ideas more than what we

tried to give them for 20 years. It is time for this to end for us. Lots of people left Afghanistan and are free throughout the world because of what we did. Just like Vietnam people left and are free today. The ones that stay and could afford to leave must want that life. IMO.

[secondwind]

3. Am afraid Afghan forces don't have the stomach to fight

the Taliban. My guess is that they are folding, left and right. And maybe even coerced into joining these monsters.

Just my 2 cents

[Paladin]

4. Other countries are ALWAYS ready to let the U.S. fight their battles.

The U.S. sunk $88 billion into Afghanistan's military. As of this morning, 77% of the U.S. public support the decision to withdraw.

Any of you old timers recall the grim joke that circulated at the time we decided to end our fighting in Vietnam? It was in the form of an ad:

FOR SALE: MILITARY FIREARMS! PREVIOUSLY USED BY ARVN: UNFIRED, AND ONLY DROPPED ONCE!

"ARVN" was the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam, i.e. South Viet Nam, our side in the war.

Some things never change...

[drray23]

5. it is because they are still a tribal society

and the Afghans in the military do not have any allegiance to the country itself, just their tribe. Their culture and thinking is closer to that of the Talibans than western democracies. Add to this that corruptrion is rampant in the government and military and they see no reasons to fight and risk dying when they could just lay down their weapons and blend back in the population. For men, its not so much of a problem to live under the rule of the Taliban, its women that will take the brunt of it.