AFGHANISTAN ERRORS

by David Nuttle

The U. S. started its 20-year war in Afghanistan in 2001 when the Taliban government there refused to surrender Osama bin Laden, the Islamic jihadist mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U. S. To better understand our failures in that war it is essential to know more about Afghanistan.

That landlocked nation, in central and south Asia, is surrounded by six other nations and is mostly mountainous and rugged with plains in the North and SW. Afghanistan has a very complex history with wars, coups, invasions, civil wars and insurgencies. Invaders included the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Maurya Empire, Muslims. Mongols, Brits, Russians, and the U. S. Drug Lords, producers of massive amounts of cannabis resin, had periodic and brutal conflicts. The Islamic Taliban gained control in 1996 & was evicted in 2001 upon the U. S. invasion. Taliban forces regained control in August 2021 after a very badly flawed removal of U. S. forces by POTUS Joe Biden. Afghanistan is well known as the "graveyard-of-empires, and that is a reputation well deserved.

I visited Afghanistan in 1962 for a brief security survey. At that time the women were well dressed in western fashion, attending schools and universities, engaged in careers, and in the process of enjoying freedoms. Under the Taliban's desire to restore ancient Islamic traditions Afghan women are not allowed to seek an education or employment, must be fully covered by a burka, are not allowed out of homes without a male relative escort, and cannot speak to others in public. Women and girls are essentially slaves to male Taliban.

The U. S. lost its Afghanistan War for the following reasons, in my opinion:

1) Afghan men had little to suffer if the Taliban regained control and military service was just a means of employment more than dedicated service to defeat an enemy.

2) As in Vietnam, Afghan military units had significant numbers of ghost troops with their pay going to Afghan commanders to "fatten" personal bank accounts.

3) Some U. S. military provided equipment was stolen and sold on the black market where it was available for the Taliban to purchase.

4) When Taliban units were badly depleted in combat actions, the surviving units could go to Pakistan where a friendly government would help them recover while recruiting & training a host of Islamic local sympathizers to rebuild their ranks.

5) In Vietnam communist forces went underground to eliminate U. S. battlefield advantages from bombing and artillery. Taliban forces did the same by using the many caves in areas of their operations.

6) Except for a brief period, U. S. Special Forces were not allowed to live and operate in full cooperation with Afghan villagers where they would be most effective (as proven in Vietnam).

7) Islamic traditions prevented U. S. forces from training, arming, & utilizing Afghan women as part of military forces. The Kurds did so in Iraq and had created a great combat benefit due to Islamic jihadist beliefs they cannot go to Islamic Paradise if killed by a woman.

8) The Taliban had good intelligence capabilities whereas the Afghan military created by the U. S. had poor counterintelligence capabilities.

9) Afghans were lacking in skills and abilities needed to operate and maintain the very sophisticated military equipment provided by the U. S. N. B. Today, the Taliban forces have the same problems with the $83 billion in U. S. military equipment gifted to them by POTUS Joe Biden upon his badly flawed evacuation of our forces from Afghanistan.

Overall, our war in Afghanistan was a great tragedy at a cost of American "blood-and- treasure." American civilians and loyal Afghan allies were left behind and the Afghans we did evacuate were not vetted, so there was no idea of who they really were. A much greater disaster could not have occurred even if planned. POTUS Biden ordered the USAF's Aghan Bagram Air Base to be abandoned although the base was needed for safe evacuations. Thus, Biden forced evacuation from Kabul airport resulting in 13 of our American soldiers being killed and over a hundred Afghans being wounded.

Afghanistan proved to be yet another great failure for the U. S. following our defeat pattern started in Vietnam.