Only 60% of its members were trained personnel

Mistakes made by the "Pentagon" contributed to the collapse of the Afghan army

• The Afghan army was not good at using modern American military equipment.

  dad

• An escalating movement of exodus from Afghanistan to Pakistan from the side of the Friendship Gate.

  Reuters

• A quarter of the Afghan army was dropping out every year and being replaced by new personnel.

  dad

picture

The rapid collapse of the Afghan army, which allowed the Taliban movement to control the country in a short period of time, highlighted the mistakes made by the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) over two decades, despite spending billions of dollars on the local armed forces.

equipment

The United States has spent $83 billion in an attempt to build a modern Afghan armed forces in the image of its army, but in the practical part it has relied heavily on air support and an advanced communications network in a country where only 30% of the population can count on the effective availability of electric power.

Washington has provided the Afghan army with equipment such as aircraft (military and drones), helicopters, armored vehicles, night vision goggles, and recently the latest version of the Black Hawk attack helicopters.

But the elements of the Afghan forces, many of whom lack experience in countries that do not have the necessary infrastructure to support advanced military equipment, were unable to show any serious resistance in the face of the Taliban, who are smaller in number and who have inferior military equipment.

According to SIGAR Inspector General John Sopko, the capabilities of the Afghan forces were overestimated.

He explains that every time he tried to prepare an assessment of the Afghan army, “the US military was changing the parameters, making it easier to show success.

Eventually, when they could no longer even do that, they classified the assessment method secret.

"They knew how bad the Afghan army was," he continues.

And the last report of the authority, which was submitted to the US Congress last week, stated that "the advanced weapons systems, vehicles and equipment used by Western forces were beyond the capabilities of the largely illiterate and uneducated Afghan forces."

Exaggerate

For months, Pentagon officials insisted on the numerical superiority of the Afghan armed forces, estimating the number of its members at 300,000, between the army and the police, in the face of the Taliban, whose number was estimated at only seventy thousand.

But those numbers were greatly inflated, according to the Counterterrorism Center at the US Military Academy in West Point, New York.

In the academy’s estimates dating back to July 2020, the number of the army and special forces operating under the command of the Ministry of Defense amounted to 185,000 out of the 300,000, while the rest were from the police and other agencies.

According to West Point analysts, only 60 percent of the Afghan army was trained.

They concluded that the most accurate estimate of the combat power of the Afghan army is at just 96,000, if you exclude the 8,000 air force.

According to the Segar report, desertion has long been a problem for the Afghan army.

He found that in 2020, the Afghan army had to replace 25% of its members annually, mainly because of desertion, and that American soldiers working with Afghans now see this percentage as “normal.”

promises

Officials in Washington have long emphasized that they will continue to support the Afghan military after August 31, the scheduled completion date for the withdrawal of US forces, but they have not explained how that support might translate into action.

On his last visit to Kabul in May, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hinted at the possibility of helping the Afghans maintain their air power from afar, through an approach he called "over the horizon."

This approach, which has remained largely opaque, is based on virtual training sessions via video communication technology through the “Zoom” application, which seemed to be an illusory proposition given the need for Afghans to have computers or smart phones, and a fast Internet connection, in order to achieve it.

And the former US ambassador to Kabul, Ronald Newman, believes that his country's army could have "taken longer" to withdraw from Afghanistan.

The agreement reached by the administration of former US President Donald Trump with the Taliban movement stipulated a complete withdrawal of foreign forces by May 2021. Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump in the presidency, delayed the date to September 11, before he resubmitted it to the end of August.

But Biden also decided to withdraw all Americans from Afghanistan, including contractors who play a pivotal role in logistical support for American equipment.

"We built an (Afghan) air force that relies on contractors for maintenance, and then we pulled the contractors," Newman, who held his position under former US President George W. Bush, said in radio statements.

payroll

Worst of all, Afghan army salaries have been paid by the Pentagon for years, but since the intention to withdraw was announced in May, the responsibility for those salaries has fallen to the Afghan government.

Many Afghan soldiers complained on social media that they had not received their salaries for months, and some of them indicated that their military units were no longer receiving food or equipment, not even ammunition.

The rapid US withdrawal was the final blow.

"We shocked the Afghan army and its morale by withdrawing our air cover," Neumann said.

• Many Afghan soldiers complained on social media that they had not received their salaries for months, and some of them indicated that their military units no longer received food or equipment, not even ammunition.

• The United States has spent $83 billion in an attempt to build modern Afghan armed forces in the image of its army, but in the practical aspect it has relied heavily on air support and an advanced communications network in a country where only 30% of the population can count on the effective availability of electric power.

• Washington provided the Afghan army with equipment such as (military and drone) planes, helicopters, armored vehicles, night vision goggles, and recently supplied it with the latest version of the Black Hawk attack helicopters.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news