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They have no idea of the sacrifices and suffering Afghans have endured over the past 42 years, since the costly Soviet invasion of 1979. They knew how it would end all along, and so did many of our troops who now mourn the plight of interpreters and other locally employed civilians left to face harsh retribution from an unforgiving enemy.Īrmchair quarterbacks point to the collapse of the Afghan National Army with contempt and disdain. The Taliban had the momentum, the weapons, the patience, the wisdom and the resources to finish this. He reportedly had to leave some money behind because it wouldn’t fit in the aircraft.
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15 with four cars and a helicopter full of cash. The perceptions were only reinforced when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Aug. The practice didn’t exactly engender trust or respect in national institutions.
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Police would resort to setting up impromptu checkpoints, usually at night, where they would collect money from drivers and passersby in return for passage. They were at or near the bottom of the totem pole, left to skim the dregs after various levels of leadership-some of them little more than thugs who seized on opportunity-helped themselves. Rank-and-file soldiers and law enforcement were underpaid or often went without compensation for long periods.
Large numbers concern themselves only with securing food and water to live another day. They can be swayed or they can be shrewd, and many Afghans, particularly in positions of local power, played both sides masterfully throughout the 20 years the NATO coalition tried to win them over.Īfghans are in their sixth straight decade of war and everywhere people are simply tired, battered and beaten. Outside of Kabul, a large proportion of the population is uneducated, isolated and unworldly. Taliban also gained control over Badakhshan, Takhar and Andarab close to the Panjshir Valley, where forces loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the late mujahedeen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, were holding their own.īut in the greater scheme of things, there is little sense of country or nationality as we know it. 15, local militias retook the districts of Pul e-Hesar, Bano, Deh Saleh in the northern province of Baghlan.
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They know the terrain and, famously, they know how to use it. As much as Kabul is considered the centre of power, the rugged and disparate country is still dominated by warlords, each of whom controls their own districts with the muscle of their private militias. In many ways, it is still stuck in some century long ago. The skills Afghans developed servicing the caravans that once passed through it are now adapted to keeping the country’s aging fleet of predominantly yellow Toyotas on the road.Ībandoned shipping containers line streets in Kabul and Kandahar, serving as makeshift shops and workshops where young boys use their nimble hands to fashion automotive parts.Ĭplc Robert Bottrill/Canadian Forces Combat Camera/Canadian Armed ForcesĪfghanistan is a warrior society. Cities like Balkh, now a village of ancient ruins near Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, once teemed with activity, their caravanserais-combined inns, bazaars and service centres-a focal point of trade and commerce.īut Afghanistan has long since been left behind. Forty per cent are Pashtuns, who rule the southern half of the country with impunity and formed the Taliban in their ancestral home of Kandahar.Īfghanistan was once a waypoint on the Silk Road. There are 14 ethnic groups in this landlocked country.
Winning over Afghans, as the recent collapse of their national army suggests, was far easier said than done. Many said from the beginning that the post-9/11 invaders of Afghanistan were doomed to follow the Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Britons (three times) and Soviets-none of whom managed a permanent presence or far-reaching impact in the parched and willfully independent land of deserts, mountains and open plains.Ī successful campaign of liberation relies as much on winning hearts and minds as it does on strategic military successes. But why couldn’t a high-powered coalition that included the United States, United Kingdom and Canada defeat a radically fundamentalist group of murderous zealots? The graveyard of empires appears to have claimed another victim.
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