@4d4m Said
Is it possible the Afghan Army collapsed in the face of the Taliban so rapidly because of ingrained superstition. Could it be they fear the Taliban because they can't shake the idea they are holy warriors, guided by Allah? Could it be the beliefs forced upon them from birth and probably in past lifetimes is so entrenched in their subconscious there was no possibility of them succeeding let alone trying to succeed?
Virtually everyone in Afghanistan is Muslim and hold broadly similar beliefs, so to understand why the Afghan army collapsed so quickly once western military support was withdrawn you need to look elsewhere.
From 2014 the bulk of the fighting (and dying) was being done by the Afghan army. Yes there were problems with leadership, corruption, drug use, poor discipline, tribal division and problems over pay and conditions. Despite these issues however the Afghan army was doing ok with the support of allied troops.
From 2014 onward the main role of western forces was to provide training to Afghan troops, as well as intelligence, technical and logistical support. Biden's commitment to an unconditional withdrawal date and the removal of western military support, along with the withdrawal of western funded private contractors, had a devastating effect on Afghan forces. Yes the things i mentioned earlier eg lack of pay, corruption, poor leadership etc all impacted upon morale. Now however they were suddenly alone. Indeed they were not just alone but they were now left to fight an enemy without the capacity to provide their combat forces with the technical and logistical support that they needed. This meant that they were unable to reinforce and resupply their units in the field. This supply issue extended to arms, ammunition, fuel and food.
The lack of technical and logistical support also had a huge impact on the operational efficiency of Afghanistan's best troops. Notably their special forces. The Afghan special forces had performed reasonably well against the Taliban. They however relied on being air mobile in order to have a notable impact. Biden's hurried and unconditional withdrawal left them largely without the ability to be rapidly deployed around the country. It's no use for example having Black Hawk helicopters if you don't have a sufficient number of highly trained men to fly, crew and maintain them.
With western military forces set to leave by an unmovable date (though Biden did say on at least one occasion that US forces wouldn't leave until ALL US citizens had been evacuated), and with much of their technical and logistical support suddenly removed, many Afghan soldiers felt isolated, abandoned and betrayed. Units found themselves cut off with no hope of reinforcements, and with no resupply capacity meaning that things as basic as food and ammunition quickly ran low. You can add to this the Taliban saying that those who resisted would be killed whilst those who laid down their arms would be allowed to return to their families. Feeling their cause was now hopeless many Afghan soldiers chose to return to their families.
It is worth noting that the congressionally mandated Afghanistan Study Group (ASG), way back in February, warned that if U.S. support were withdrawn the Afghan forces risked total collapse. This was a view publicly held by many observers. Indeed in Australia we had members from the ASPI, as well as Afghan veterans, saying exactly this.
The reality is that what has happened in Afghanistan was entirely predictable and entirely preventable. Afghanistan will once again provide a safe and secure base for terrorists to train, plan and recruit. With the US withdrawal looking more like a military defeat these terrorists are likely to become emboldened with all that this entails...