Because we have our hands tied behind our back, and the Afghan military are worse then the Norks.
Much worse. At least there has to be some level of fiscal responsibility within the Nork army. Because they're the ones who pay the bills. Here, the Afghan military took advantage of the fact that the US basically pays the bills AND did the heavy lifting when it came to the fighting. All the Afghans had to do was occasionally show up and not shit the bed.
The problem is that the Taiban is still an effective force after a decade of occupation.
No, the problem is that in 2017 (or was it 2019?), the US discovered that 120,000 troops of the 300,000 troop Afghan Military
didn't actually exist. You want to talk about purging voter roles, imagine finding out if 40% of the Democrats who voted last year were either dead or didn't exist. That is the level of scandal that the Afghan military had several years ago.
And in 2019, a news report indicated that there was suspected to be more than just the 40% being ghost troops. And that brings in another form of corruption. Because this whole situation doesn't make any sense. The Taliban taking territory is one thing. The Taliban winning is one thing. The Taliban overrunning the Afghan army is an entirely different matter. How is the Afghan military losing so badly when they have US hardware, US training, US intelligence support, US logistic support, US air support, and twice the numbers as the Taliban?
Or maybe we need to ask ourselves some rather uncomfortable questions about this 180,000 man army. Because most Middle Eastern cultures are clannish. Meaning they live in extended families. Shame being brought upon your clan is in some cases, a crime worse than death. And supporting and empowering your clan is not just a good thing, but probably a moral obligation. So you may have a shitty cousin or brother who are worth less than the shit that comes out the ass, but your family needs him to be gainfully employed in a respectable job and you don't want to keep lending him cash. So you get him a job as one of your soldiers.
Sure, he failed basic training, hadn't you blackmailed the guy in charge. Sure, he shows up for his shift once or twice a week, leaves early, and can only reliable located with the local whore--but at least you can put a brave face on it. And you know that he's never going to show up to fight, but who cares? You're not paying for it, your father isn't paying for it, no one in your family is paying for it, and in fact, the US tax payers are paying for it. And the US tax payers aren't going to withdraw troops until they defeat the Taliban.
So what are the chances that 40,000 or 60,000 or even 120,000 of the troops on paper are anything more than assholes who are just using the Afghan army as welfare? What are the chances that most of them don't show up to fight? What are the chances that if they do, they surrender, flee, or join the enemy when things go sour? And what does that mean for the rest of the troops who do the right thing? The ones who DON'T get paid for up to several months? The ones who DON'T have much food to eat? The ones who DON'T have family in high places?
But as far as I can tell, this is the general sum of Afghan military capability:
Them, fleeing in droves.
Now, I don't know what orders they were given or how desperate their flight was, so I can't say for certain. And certainly it is best to withdraw to a better defensible position to regroup than to make a brave stand that ends in disaster. But I ask you, HOW likely do you think it is that the US would have a caravan of armored vehicles running with their tail between their legs if a US city was under assault from a domestic militant group with that was half their size?
I am no expert on the military, I dare say I lack even a passing knowledge of how the military actually works. So maybe some of our members here who have served can tell me, just how fucking bad it has to be that the army is running away from key cities. Because it would strike me that even if they were losing, these troops should be trying to hold the enemy back until reinforcements arrive. The most straightforward explanation in my mind is that either these men are cowards or they know that there will be no reinforcements and are fleeing a hopeless situation.