What Went Wrong in Afghanistan
15th August 2021
The collapse of the Afghan armed forces this week, far quicker than anyone expected, has revealed the depth of the corruption that has hollowed out the Afghan state, including, as it turned out, the military. On paper Afghanistan had 300,000 troops and paramilitary police, and 30,000 special forces – more than enough to secure the country against an insurgency if skilfully deployed and well motivated. The best of these troops are as good as any in the region. But they were strung out in thousands of checkpoints across the country, poorly fed, rarely paid, and with fuel and ammunition sold off before it reached them. Many of the units were composed of ‘ghost soldiers,’ phantom troops whose pay was collected by senior officers.