KARACHI:
Taliban’s swift capture of Kabul has left many security and political analysts questioning the role and integrity of the Afghan national army and police that quickly collapsed. In some instances, the Afghan security forces — trained and funded by the US — surrendered without offering any resistance. It was a policy failure of the US internal departments that squabbled among themselves on the nature of the Taliban threat. The Afghan military suffered from a high desertion rate, theft, drug addiction, corruption, and the presence of “ghost soldiers” that greatly fractured its professional fighting spirit.
In 2019, the US eliminated 50,000 ghost soldiers from Afghan military books. This was a major problem that plagued the Afghan military and police force. Senior Officials stole the salaries of subordinates, sold weapons for cash, and sometimes left soldiers without enough food or water. After the withdrawal of US forces, the Afghan military lost the morale to fight without support from the US. The suspected support to the Taliban from regional countries including Russia, Iran, and China, for their strategic interests, further fueled the meltdown of Afghan defence forces. The rapid fall of the Afghan forces was caused by technical and non-technical reasons.
Muhammad Arslan
Toba Tek Singh
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2021.
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