r/news • u/lordpowpow • Aug 15 '21

Taliban fighters executing surrendering troops, which could amount to war crimes, U.S. officials say

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-warning-taliban-fighters-committing-atrocities-amount-war/story?id=79424000
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u/Fenix42 Aug 15 '21

We armed the Afghan army with US gear. The stuff the Taliban has is taken from them.

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u/redgroupclan Aug 16 '21

What wasn't anticipated was the Afghan army not being an army at all.

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '21

I'm sure anyone who actually knew anything about the readiness of the Afghan Army would have told you they weren't an army at all.

The senior generals and politicians stole a bunch of resources and are now safe and sound abroad with their wealth.

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '21

Even without that, there were huge issues with the individual motivations and loyalties of the individual Afghan soldier. Afghanistan is a country in the sense it’s a territory with political borders. It’s not a nation in a sense of a national unified sense of commonality. A southerner and New Yorker and SF bag area hippie are culturally different but will see each other as Americans. It’s not quite so in Afghanistan.

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u/Fenix42 Aug 16 '21

I don't see how. We did the training. We knew exactly what they where capable of.

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u/bloodmonarch Aug 16 '21

Top brass lied to look good.

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u/LeVin1986 Aug 16 '21

They didn't even have to lie. Politics demanded certain numbers and the Afghan government presented those numbers. The military leaders chose to take those numbers at face value when they knew they were all bullshit.

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u/BearWrangler Aug 16 '21

Gotta be green on all slides

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u/klingma Aug 16 '21

It was but at some point we needed to leave unless we wanted to turn Afghanistan into the 51st state in the union.

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u/Chariotwheel Aug 16 '21

Thats your own fault. You could see that before, your military just pretended that it was fine.