Fighting the Taliban: Why the Afghan Army is so helpless

The speed with which the Taliban are taking one provincial capital after the other in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of international troops has surprised even military experts. “We are speechless,” said a German general recently who closely followed the deployment of international troops over almost all stages. On Sunday Kunduz fell into the hands of the Islamists. And the Taliban’s offensive continues.

How did it happen that the Afghan security forces collapse within a few weeks after years of reconstruction work by international troops? It was also Germany’s task to enable the Afghan police and army, which were to be responsible for security in the country from now on, to live up to this responsibility. Senior officers who want to remain anonymous paint a bleak picture. Together with its international partners, Afghanistan’s army with its 180,000 soldiers was still functioning well. The aid from abroad worked like “corset bars”. Without it, however, the shell collapses.

At the end of 2020, the Afghan Air Force had 163 aircraft and helicopters, including transport planes and combat aircraft. In 2017, the SZ visited a base near Mazar-i-Sharif that was heavily protected by barbed wire and concrete obstacles. Large, simple hangars, jeeps, and carefully parked single-engine propeller planes, A-29 Super Toucan. The machines looked like from a classic car show, but that was deceptive. Equipped with automatic cannons, missiles and thermal imaging devices, the A-29 are considered to be one of the most effective weapons in the fight against the Taliban. The small air force became the pride of the military construction workers from abroad. Afghan television celebrated the fighter pilots, who were always seen outside the cockpit in blousons and designer sunglasses, as the new heroes of the nation and of Islam. The men themselves swore to one another that they would rather shoot each other than fall into the hands of the Islamists.

But now many of the machines can no longer take off. The repairs, the maintenance – this was done by contractors of the Americans, who have now also left the country. The number of operational fighter jets has deteriorated dramatically, say from circles of the former allies. The troops on the ground lack the urgently needed air support. The Taliban are now deliberately killing air force pilots in attacks. Reuters news agency recently reported at least seven cases.

The collapse of the Afghan army began in February 2020 – with Donald Trump

The collapse of the Afghan armed forces began much earlier, however: in February 2020. By then, they had held their own, albeit with high losses. Then US President Donald Trump initiated the withdrawal of international troops with the Doha Agreement between the US and the Taliban. But while the US and the Taliban agreed a kind of mutual ceasefire, the Afghan security forces remained in the sights of the Islamists. The number of attacks even increased because the Taliban wanted to secure a stronger position for the negotiations by gaining ground.

The Afghan army, which until then had to rely on American support, was left alone in the field and was downright torn apart. The Taliban used the time to “calmly spread out across the country and get into new positions,” says a German officer. Due to a lack of success in the fight against the Taliban, experienced military leaders were replaced in key positions, which only weakened the army.

It is now also taking revenge that the Resolute Support training and advisory mission, which followed the combat mission in 2014, remained far too superficial. Even before the corona pandemic, for example, the number of actual German advisors was a few dozen and only reached the command posts of the army – they did not even get to the operational level. And the power- and status-conscious Afghan commanders, said a frustrated adviser to the Bundeswehr in the combat area near Kunduz in 2017, “they hear what I say and then they stick to it or not”.

To the few AssetsAs they say in the military spokesman, the Afghan military owns the highly motivated Special Forces, made up of the Taliban’s mortal enemies. They are almost always called when the warriors of God take hostages, storm a hotel or send terrorist groups into the cities. Usually it is the special forces that finally end the matter. They are now being trained for the future in Turkey, the only question is whether there is still such a future for them. With a few thousand elite soldiers, this country-wide war cannot be won.