DNA Explainer: How Taliban defeated Afghan Army, trained by US over two decades

With nearly 80,000 troops the Taliban managed to defeat over 3,00,000 serving Afghan forces in a matter of weeks as the world witnessed Afghan military commanders surrendered without a fight. Instead of putting the entire blame on the withdrawal of US military forces, the truth is that the government troops were outmaneuvered by a more adaptive military organisation. 

The Taliban of 2021 is different than that of the 1990s - better equipped, highly motivated ideologically, and more proficient in integrating military power. 

The US aid spending watchdog estimated the spending of USD 88.3 billion on security-related reconstruction in Afghanistan up to March 2021. Last month itself the US watchdog had warned that it was very difficult for them to access whether the Afghan National Defense and Security forces (ANDSF) could operate independently of the US forces when required.

And now when the Afghan National Defense and Security forces completely crumbled before the Taliban militants, the matter needs to be reviewed by US Congress. It will seek to understand why despite such vast spending on training the Afghan military it surrendered before the Taliban in mere weeks' time, leaving the western world shocked, reported The Guardian.

What led to the crumbling of Afghan forces?

The US watchdog says corruption within the force has been one of the primary reasons for its weakness.

Over-reliance on advanced equipment is again another cause of the forces not putting up a great show.

With widespread illiteracy in its ranks, the force could not maintain its strength and combat readiness.

Decades of dependence on the US by ANDSF for key skills, including air cover, logistics, and maintenance.

Dependence on training support for ground vehicles and aircraft, security, base support, and transportation services.

Many officials complained that they had not been paid for months as the Central government faced a severe fiscal crisis.

This fiscal crisis was precipitated by the loss of customs revenues and declining aid flows to Afghanistan.

Also, there was fear among Afghan forces that if the Taliban would take over then revenge and personal scores would be settled.

Taliban has been active on social media and has been trying to spread fear saying surrender and live or die.

How the US-trained the Afghan forces?

The multibillion-dollar training of Afghan forces started in 2002 and three years later the US took control of training both the police and military.

Hence the US military trainers have had nearly two decades to train and ready the Afghan forces for a Taliban insurgency.

USD 88.3 billion was allocated up to March for security-related reconstruction, compared with USD 36 billion for governance and development.

The US began transforming the Afghan National Army from a light-infantry force to a combined-arms service with army, air force, and special forces elements.

The Sigar report says from 2005 the US military had been seeking to evaluate the battle-readiness of the troops they had been training.

In 2010, it acknowledged that its monitoring and evaluation procedures failed to measure factors like leadership, corruption, and motivation in the ranks.

The assessment mechanism changed again in 2013, but in 2014 when it saw no progress then it was decided that the assessment reports become classified.

The focus now shifted from battalions to command headquarters.

The report also found a disjunction between what generals told Congress and what lower-level officers reported.