Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces' collapse

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces’ collapse

More than 1,000 have fled across the border, and hundreds more have handed over weapons to the Taliban

Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul
Tue 13 Jul 2021 05.00 BST

Last autumn, with the departure of American troops from Afghanistan looming after the US signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban, several of the most senior security officials in Kabul urged President Ashraf Ghani to make some hard choices.

The Afghan army and police needed to retrench, figures including the then defence minister, Assadullah Khalid, told Ghani. Remote outposts, and rural areas where troops held little more than the cluster of government and security buildings that make up a “district centre”, should be abandoned.

Troops and ammunition drawn back from these areas could focus on the fight for more important assets, such as key roads and border crossings, as forces adapted to the loss of the US air force and other technical support that had been critical to fighting the Taliban, they argued.

The men urging this strategic retreat had, between them, years of experience fighting in the different iterations of Afghanistan’s civil wars, which have now stretched on for more than 40 years in a kaleidescope of shifting enemies and allies.

Ghani and his national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, who have multiple prestigious degrees but no battlefield experience, refused. “We’re not giving up one inch of our country,” Mohib reportedly told the assembled officials at one point, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions. The government declined to comment.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/13/afghanistan-stunned-by-scale-and-speed-of-security-forces-collapse

[calguy]

1. It was going to happen

If we had left ten years ago
Or if we had left ten years from now
The result was going to be the same
The only difference is how money it cost us
And how many of our soldiers would be lost

[FalloutShelter]

2. At the end of th day, the Afghan people have to want this for themselves

as much as we want for them. Over and over again, across centuries, they have proven that they do not.
They do not call Afghanistan the "Graveyard of Empire" for nothing.

[bahboo]

5. absolutely....

[RealityBasedNewYorkr]

3. You can't make Enlightenment / Renaissance happen *for* a country

Or *for* a population…they have to want it organically.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

4. I was there in 2013

Training and Advising their military….And me and the others that I was there with knew this would happen as soon as we left.