Gaurav Sawant

Each picture from Afghanistan is more horrifying than the other. Desperate mothers handing over toddlers across concertina wires on top of high walls of the Hamid Karzai International Airport are heartbreaking. Equally numbing are pictures of youth desperately running along the giant C-17 Globemaster heavy-lift transport aircraft of the US Air Force, clinging on to dear life and the undercarriage, hoping to be saved from the torture of the Taliban. Several men fell to certain death as the aircraft soared into the sky. While the US must answer questions on its withdrawal from Afghanistan and the strategy, or the lack of it, behind it, there are questions that the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces must answer.

On paper, the Afghan Forces are 3,00,000-strong. The Air Force has light attack aircraft, attack and transport helicopters, drones, armoured vehicles, assault rifles and machine guns and yet the Taliban on motorcycles and pickup trucks overran the country, virtually unchallenged. Multiple reasons are being offered for the debacle of the Afghan Army — from corruption to poor leadership. If women are out on the streets protesting against the Taliban today, if men are fighting for the honour of Afghanistan's flag today and if the Northern Alliance is emerging as a force of resistance now, why was the country not united in taking on the Taliban?

MOTIVATION

Motivation is a battle-winning factor. The leader of the Taliban is Haibatullah Akhundzada, the man who sent his 23-year-old son Abdur Rehman for a suicide attack in 2017 at Helmand. Though Rehman alias Hafiz Khalid was learnt to have enrolled as a suicide attacker even before Akhundzada took over the reins of the Taliban after the killing of Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour in May 2016 in a US drone strike in Pakistan, the decision remains unchanged after his father took control of the Taliban. Rahman drove his explosive-laden Humvee into an Afghan Army camp at Gereshk, north of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.

LEADERSHIP

Now compare this to the morale of the Afghanistan Army: unpaid for months, low on motivation with no clear orders, and worse still, frequent changes in the chain of command. Afghanistan's defence minister Asadullah Khalid was replaced by Bismillah Khan Mohammadi due to the ill health of the former in June. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in June changed not just the defence and interior ministers but also the Army Chief. Hayatuyllah Hayat was replaced by Abdul Sattar Mirzakhwal in June as the interior minister and Gen Yasin Zia was removed as the Army Chief and replaced by Gen Wali Mohammed Ahmedzai. In August, as the Taliban continued to advance and one province after the other collapsed, Ghani removed Gen Ahmedzai and brought in Gen Hibatullah Alizai. Insiders also indicate that the Army was given conflicting orders about stopping the Taliban at one level and not causing bloodshed as the aim was an inclusive government at the other.

CORRUPTION

What is also being alleged is that though the US spent a massive 88.3 billion $ over 10 years, systems of checks and balances were poor. On paper, the Afghan National Forces had 7 Corps but, on the ground, several hundred troops were only on paper. There are reports that weapons and loyalties changed hands as the Taliban advanced. Some poorly paid soldiers with subpar leadership and torn loyalties took off their uniforms and switched sides. Warlords with a loyal band of followers like Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ata Mohammed Noor were systematically weakened following Ashraf Ghani's efforts to create an Afghan National Army. However, days before he fled Kabul, Ghani saw the writing on the wall and sought their help to combat the Taliban but by then it was too late.

OVER-DEPENDENCE ON US AIRPOWER

The Afghan forces were raised and trained as a counter-terror force. They were dependent on US air support to neutralise the threat. The brave Afghan soldiers fought well against terror when backed or led by the US forces, but independent leadership and tactics were not evolved over the years. As the US pulled the plug on Bagram and left in the middle of the night without even informing their Afghan counterparts who had shed blood together, the morale of the force nosedived. The US contractors providing maintenance to the air fleet also left, leaving the forces adversely impacted. The Afghan forces did not want all the aircraft to fall into the hands of the Taliban and flew out several aircraft and helicopters to neighbouring countries.

GHANI LEAVING AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani was reportedly very surprised with the rapid and virtually unchallenged advance of the Taliban to Kabul. The impression was there were multiple security grids around Kabul and that the Taliban will not be able to break through. However, the level of mistrust was so high that the President, Vice President Amrullah Saleh and Dr Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, and the forces were all not on the same page. When Ghani left Kabul, the forces, it seems, were under the impression he was still around. It was Dr Abdullah who made the announcement on social media. Sources monitoring the situation say the President felt let down with the Taliban entering Kabul and the forces were let down he left without informing anyone. That broke national morale and the Taliban moved into the Presidential Palace saying they had to enter Kabul to protect Kabul from loot and plunder.

ALL EYES ON PANJSHIR

Vice President Amrullah Saleh did not leave the country like President Ghani whose aircraft incidentally was not permitted to land at Tajikistan. Saleh rushed to Panjshir and with Ahmed Massoud, son of legendary Tajik hero of resistance Ahmed Shah Massoud, and asked people to join the resistance against the Taliban. Afghanistan defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi and several hundred Afghan National Army soldiers with their weapons and vehicles are also in and around Panjshir to plan a fightback. Late Friday, reports from Afghanistan indicated that Pul-e-Hisar district of Andarab had been freed from the Taliban by local forces. There were reports of fierce fighting in Bano and Dehsalah districts.

Andarab borders Panjshir and reports also indicate that the Taliban are sending fighters to put down the resistance.

WOMEN FIGHT BACK

Women in Afghanistan are coming out to resist. Several journalists and activists have spoken up demanding rights in this now-or-never fight. Afghanistan is at a crossroads once again. The West appears to have lost the battle in the mind; the people are fighting for their survival and way of life. Afghan officials of the earlier dispensation say it took close to 10 billion dollars a year to run the government. Afghanistan was able to generate two billion dollars on its own and the rest came from the West. The women hope the US, Europe and the democratic world will put pressure on the Taliban to ensure an inclusive government giving women their rights in return for foreign aid. All eyes are on the Taliban. Is the Taliban 2.0 any different from the 1996-2001 government? The Afghans fleeing the country say there is no difference, but the world is watching. The Taliban is on notice. Courtesy: Indiatoday