Opinion: Afghanistan’s collapse was not pre-ordained. It was willful abandonment
CNNEditor’s Note: Retired Lt. Col. Jason Amerine is a 1993 graduate of the United States Military Academy with a bachelor of science in Arabic. Courtesy Jason Amerine With the fall of the Taliban, the US and coalition forces demobilized all the warlords’ armies and established the Afghan National Army in hopes of empowering Kabul. Few believed the US would stay indefinitely and the Afghan National Army needed generations to become a viable fighting force as Afghanistan faced a growing insurgency that had become another civil war. But in Afghanistan, locally raised and highly cohesive insurgent tribal forces supported by Pakistan fought a fledgling Afghan National Army that was simply outmatched without coalition forces fighting at its side. Courtesy Jason Amerine With the election of President Barack Obama, the US announced a plan to withdraw from Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan faced a stark choice: believe in Kabul, backed by an incapable Army that would soon have to stand on its own, or accept that the Taliban were likely going to seize control once again with the backing of Pakistan.
History of this topic
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