How the Taliban Overran the Afghan Army

How the Taliban Overran the Afghan Army, Built by the U.S. Over 20 Years

By Yaroslav Trofimov
August 14, 2021 – wsj.com

Taliban CommanderKABUL—The Afghan government outpost in Imam Sahib, a district of northern Kunduz province, held out for two months after being surrounded by the Taliban. At first, elite commando units would come once a week on a resupply run. Then, these runs became more scarce, as did the supplies.

“In the last days, there was no food, no water and no weapons,” said trooper Taj Mohammad, 38. Fleeing in one armored personnel carrier and one Ford Ranger, the remaining men finally made a run to the relative safety of the provincial capital, which collapsed weeks later. They left behind another 11 APCs to the Taliban.

As district after district fell in this summer’s Taliban offensive, without much visible support from the Afghan national army and police forces, other soldiers simply made the calculation that it wasn’t worth fighting anymore—especially if the Taliban offered them safe passage home, as they usually did.
Full Article : wsj.com

6 thoughts on “How the Taliban Overran the Afghan Army”

  1. They had several black hawks that could have been used to repulse the enemy at night and drop supplies. An army cannot March on an empty stop. The supply lines are their lifeblood.

    I think morale in the Afghan armed forces dissipated quickly upon the departure of the U.S. Also the quick capture and speed of the Taliban came as a shock to all. No one was slowing them down or even attempting to contain them. They just gave their country over to these battle hardened thugs.

    “About 241,000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan and Pakistan war zone since 2001. More than 71,000 of those killed have been civilians.”…. War is all about who can kill more. The US bombed and killed Talibans wherever they were found. Yet they continued to fight for 20 years. This for them was a religious ideological war. A war that they were prepared to prosecute for as long as they had breath.

    The US departure was reminiscent of the fall of Saigon. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/08/16/afghanistan-fall-kabul-fall-saigon-vietnam-horror/8146925002/
    The Center of terror in the name of religious extremism has now found a home in Afghanistan. A snake does not become a puppy. And so the brood of vipers are set to poison that region.

  2. Could this be because of COVID’s economic effect on ‘The West’?

    Subscription needed for WSJ’s article…

  3. As the war hawks begin to beat their drums of war as a reaction to the defeat in Afghanistan (eerily similar to those drums of war after the defeat in Vietnam, and the claims of a “failure of will” in Vietnam), President Biden’s speech brings a needful dose of reality to those purveyors of militarism which had ironically just been defeated in Afghanistan. President Biden’s speech on Afghanistan, August 16, 2021: “U.S. forces had already drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces to 2,500 troops in country, and the Taliban was at its strongest militarily since 2001. The choice I had to make, as your President, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season. There would have been no ceasefire after May 1. There was no agreement protecting our forces after May 1. There was no status quo of stability without American casualties after May 1. There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan, lurching into the third decade of conflict. I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.”

  4. “Award-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins @GeorgeGalloway on the Mother of All Talk Shows, discussing the American response to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

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