Topic: Afghanistan's 'ghost army', did corruption or the Taliban cripple the former Afghan regime?

When Kabul fell to Taliban forces on the 15th of August 2021, it shocked the world. The same day the Taliban entered the Afghan capital, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the former government quickly collapsed. In the subsequent months, resistance from former government loyalists was either crushed, or dissipated of its own accord. Prior to the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces, billions of dollars had been pumped into the Afghan National Army and it supposedly numbered around 300,000 troops, a force three times larger than the British Army. Yet the scale of the collapse begs the question, what happened to this huge force?

Analysis

To those familiar with Afghan politics since the American invasion in 2003, it will come as no surprise that corruption played a major role in the armies collapse. Afghanistan's ex-finance minister, Khalid Payenda recently told the BBC that the stated '300,000' troop numbers were largely an illusion. The former minister went as far to conclude that the Afghan National Army (ANA), was in fact seriously outnumbered by the Taliban. He claimed that regional commanders were asked to detail troop numbers under their jurisdiction, then the wages from the central government were subsequently allocated based upon these figures. This  system exposed serious potential for corruption, which was duly exploited. Payenda alleged that these figures would be inflated by more than six times, with deserters and dead soldiers kept on the books in order for senior officials to pocket the wages. 

These allegations fit in to a wider perception of the endemic corruption within Afghanistan as a whole. In 2016, US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan concluded that no-one was actually sure as to how many Afghan troops existed, or there military capability. Commanders and soldiers were accused of taking a government wage, only to take a second wage from the Taliban to not actually fight. In August 2021 as the Taliban advanced, there were widespread reports of the ANA simply being paid by the Taliban to surrender, with stocks of NATO weaponry peacefully delivered to the Islamist group. This image was reinforced on August 16th, 2021, when President Joe Biden concluded, 'how many more generations of America's daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan's civil war, when Afghan troops will not?'

Perception or Reality?

Though the world has been quick to point out the corruption of the ANA following their rapid collapse, former officers of the ANA have instead pointed the blame at ministers. Colonel Rezai, a former ANA officer, accused the Afghan government of abandoning frontline troops, who sacrificed upwards of 66,000 lives over the course of the conflict. He also accused the United States of abandoning Afghanistan, whilst specifically citing former president, Ashraf Ghani, as a particular source of corruption. 

Though the blame game between former ANA soldiers and ex-government officials is likely to continue for a number of years, the reality for the Afghan people who were not fortunate enough to escape is bleak. The economy is crashing, fuel is scarce and winter is coming. Perhaps the most damning legacy of the former Afghan government is its failure to deal with corruption across all levels of society. In 2020, the Corruption Perception Index ranked Afghanistan as 165/180, with a rating of 'highly corrupt.' In 2005, when Afghanistan first joined the list, it ranked 117. No matter who is to be blamed for the failure in Afghanistan, the ANA, government officials and the United States will all be haunted by the 'ghost army'.

(Image source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/finland-halt-development-aid-afganistan-after-taliban-takeover-2021-08-17/)