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How Taliban Stormed Across Afghanistan, Smashing NATO-Trained Army in Ten Days_我的网站

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A | The August 15, 2021 fall of Kabul shocked the world, signaling the collapse of the West’s 20-year-long, multi-trillion-dollar nation-building experiment in Afghanistan in a single day.,Less than two weeks before the cataclysm, US and Afghan officials issued statement after statement expressing confidence in the Afghan military’s ability to fight on without American support on the ground.,“[The Afghan Army has] got greater numbers, they’ve got an air force, and, oh by the way, their air force is also flying…This is not an incompetent air force – they know how to fight from the air and they are. They have modern weaponry. They have military organizational ability as well as 20 years of training in the field by – not just the United States but our NATO and Allied partners. So they have a lot of advantages. It’s really just now about using those advantages,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on August 11, less than 100 hours before Kabul’s collapse.,In the chaotic few days that followed, Afghan Air Force personnel wound up flying nearly 50 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft out of the country to neighboring Uzbekistan.,What happened? How did the US and NATO’s orderly withdrawal – which began in May 2021 amid fears that the Taliban would attack Western forces if they didn’t stick to the terms of the 2020 Trump-Taliban Doha peace deal, turn into such a humiliating and disorganized rout?,Paper Tiger vs Shoeless Army,On paper, the Afghan government and army seemed prepared for a years-long slog, similar to the one put up by the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, which managed to hold out against the Mujahedeen independently between 1989 and early 1992, even as the jihadists received billions in arms and cash from the CIA, Saudi and Egyptian intelligence, Pakistan and China. By comparison, the NATO-backed Afghan Army had serious problems with foreign support for the Taliban, with the insurgent group’s only major foreign backer consisting of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.,The Afghan military boasted a total size of some 300,000 personnel – the 16th largest army in the world, along with an impressive array of $85 billion in US-gifted weaponry, including tens of millions of guns, grenades and rocket launchers, 8,500 Humvees, hundreds of armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, and thousands of heavy and light trucks.,The Air Force’s inventory included more than two hundred Russian and US-made attack and utility helicopters, dozens of transport planes, and close to 30 Cessna 208 and A-29 Super Tucano ground attack and COIN jets.,US 'Lost Track' of Afghan War Aims, Says Retired Marine General12 August, 17:00 GMT,Facing off against them were the Taliban: a rag-tag group of militants whose core fighting force was estimated to consist of about 60,000 fighters, some of them shoeless, no air force, and limited mobility due to their adversary’s total air superiority and control of fuel.,Behind the scenes, a sprinkling of media reports and testimonies from Afghan soldiers and officials told a sobering story previewing the coming disaster, discussing the widespread disillusionment, demoralization and corruption centered around military and police structures based more on patronage, personal power and enrichment than competence and aptitude.,“There is no motivation for the army to fight for the corrupt government and corrupt politicians here,” Ahmad Wali Massoud, Afghanistan’s former envoy to the UK, told the Wall Street Journal on August 10, a few days before Kabul’s collapse.,“They are not fighting for [then-Afghan President Ashraf] Ghani. They haven’t even been fed properly. Why should they fight? For what? They are better off with the Taliban, which is why they are switching sides like that,” Massoud explained.,US Military Vehicles Falling Into Taliban Hands at Alarming Rate, Report Finds3 July 2021, 15:14 GMT,Ghani himself would end up fleeing the country as Kabul fell, with his entourage reportedly carrying so much money in suitcases from the state coffers that he had to leave some of it behind. Ghani has categorically dismissed these reports and denied allegations besmirching his good name.,John Sopko, the US inspector general for Afghanistan, warned Congress in March 2021 about the state of the Afghan’s military’s demoralization, admitting that “endemic corruption” was a threat, and that it was “fueling” the insurgency and giving the Taliban the means to gain public support.,Another problem, according to a May 2021 report by the Associated Press, was lack of professionalism. Attiqullah Amarkhiel, a former Afghan Army major general, told the news agency that while the Moscow-allied Afghan Army of 1989 consisted of about 150,000 high school educated troops. By contrast, he said, the NATO-trained crack troops of the Western-backed Afghan government had just six-to-eight weeks of basic training, with most recruits uneducated and/or allied to warlords.,“Then we had quality. Today we have quantity,” Amarkhiel said.,Blitzkrieg,This demoralization and corruption, combined with what The Intelligencer characterized as an institutionally built-in deep overdependence on US coalition support, culminated in the events of early-mid-August 2021.,By mid-July of that year, the Taliban was able to take advantage of coalition forces’ withdrawal by establishing control over large swathes of the Afghan countryside. However, no major cities and none of the country’s 34 provincial capitals were under the group’s control at the time. Throughout its two-decade insurgency campaign, the Taliban only launched one major strategic offensive against a government-controlled city – striking Kandahar in May 2011 before retreating back into the countryside.,Fast forward a decade, and the militant group would finally cast off their inhibitions about offensives cities.,On August 6, the militants captured Zaranj, capital of the southern province of Nimruz near the border with Iran, in a lightning attack, with government forces putting up light resistance and local bureaucrats fleeing the city.,A day later, the militants captured Sheberghan, capital of Jawzjan province, after heavy fighting. On August 8, Sar-e-Pul, Kunduz and Taluqan, three provincial capitals in the north of the country, fell, followed by Aybak in the northern Samangan province on August 9.,August 10 witnessed the collapse of Farah in the west and Pul-e-Khumri in Afghanistan’s center. A day later, Faizabad, capital of the northeastern province of Badakhshan also fell.,Animation showing Taliban's inexorable march towards Kabul. “The problem with the army was not lack of training or weapons. The most important thing in war is politics”Read @AmyKazmin @KatrinaManson and @b_parkyn's story on why the Afghan army foldedhttps://t.co/bjjJdPp15J pic.twitter.com/Ll6JrHQWLH— Steven Bernard (@sdbernard) August 15, 2021,August 12-13 would become the darkest days for the Afghan army and government up to that point, with the cities of Ghazni, Herat, Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, Qala-e-Naw, Feruz Koh, Pul-e-Alam, Terenkot and Qalat falling to the Taliban in the space of 48 hours. On August 14, the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif fell.,Finally, on August 15, 2021, Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad collapsed – falling, awkwardly, while tens of thousands of coalition troops, contractors, diplomats, Afghan puppet administration assistance and Western intelligence agents were still in the country.,© AP Photo / Rahmat GulA U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday, further tightening their grip on the country as panicked workers fled government offices and helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy.A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday, further tightening their grip on the country as panicked workers fled government offices and helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy.© AP Photo / Rahmat Gul,In a post-op analysis of the events, General Yasin Zia, the former chief of staff of the Afghan army, estimated that some 4,000 security forces troops were killed, and 1,000 more gone missing, in the deadly weeks between July 1 and August 15, 2021 – with that figure representing about one half of the average of 8,000 Afghan security personnel killed each year over the previous five years.,Zia estimated that in total, some 92,000 members of the Afghan security forces died in the line of duty since 2001. Up to 100,000 Afghan civilians, tens of thousands of Taliban fighters, over 3,500 US and coalition troops, and 4,000+ Western mercenaries also perished.,* An organization under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.。　　海南文昌8月25日电 (记者符宇群王晓斌)25日开幕的2026文昌国际航空航天论坛上，海南省文昌市市长、文昌国际航天城管理局常务副局长曹树育透露，文昌锚定2030年形成航班化商业发射能力这一目标，将全力推进发射工位二期、测控系统、可重复使用火箭海上回收系统等关键设施加速建设，确保年底前形成能力；同时同步启动三期工位、转运道路、运输码头等谋划，为“百箭千星”任务提供高效支撑。8月25日，海南省文昌市市长、文昌国际航天城管理局常务副局长曹树育在2026文昌国际航空航天论坛作主旨报告。

B | 记者骆云飞摄　　近期，中国长十乙火箭、朱雀三号遥二火箭分别实现海上网系回收、陆地回收，中国成为全球唯一同时掌握两种火箭回收技术的国家。曹树育认为，可重复使用运载火箭技术取得重大突破，将推动商业航天加速迈向规模化、产业化发展新阶段，文昌正迎来前所未有的发展机遇。　　今年以来，海南商业航天发射场已圆满完成11次发射任务，具备多型火箭常态化发射能力，商业发射能力显著增强。

C | 当前，文昌依托文昌航天发射场以及国内首个商业航天发射场，当地具备发射效率高、海上运输便捷、火箭落区安全等突出优势，已是中国大推力运载火箭发射、深空探测任务实施的重要基地。　　未来五年，“百箭千星”“梦舟揽月”“长九问天”三大国家工程布局文昌，文昌服务国家航天战略的支撑作用将进一步凸显。　　曹树育说，在功能层面，文昌早已跳出单一发射保障基地的定位，向着火箭总装、卫星制造、数据交易、文旅观礼多元业态并行的产业新城转型。

D | 伴随可重复使用火箭技术走向成熟，文昌在火箭回收、检测、复用等环节的区位红利将加速释放，航天产业集聚效应将持续放大。　　在开放合作上，海南自贸港的政策红利，为文昌开展国际商业发射服务、卫星数据跨境流动等提供独特优势。文昌将在深化国际合作中发挥更加重要作用，成为面向全球的商业航天开放合作枢纽。　　曹树育表示，文昌航天产业综合实力正加速成势，聚焦火箭链、卫星链、数据链等产业，文昌靶向招引企业落地。中国运载火箭技术研究院海南新区开工建设，卫星超级工厂完成一期产线建设，即将开展首轨星装配任务，海南航天数据跨境加工贸易区揭牌，省级航天旅游平台加快搭建，文昌航天科普中心营收实现翻番，全产业链高质量发展格局加快形成。　　依托海南省航天技术创新中心、海南卫星数据与应用研究中心等，文昌实现多项首次：首颗超低轨SAR卫星成功研制并发射，首单国际卫星发射服务，首个遥感卫星数据出境。文昌正以打造商业航天领域创新高地为牵引，争创国家及省级重点实验室、技术创新中心，前瞻布局关键技术攻关，推动更多“首单”“首例”落地，创新开放活力不断激发。　　“商业航天是高度协同的事业，文昌愿做航天产业的‘铺路人’和‘合伙人’，与各方携手共谋发展。”曹树育向海内外市场发出诚挚邀约。　　曹树育表示，欢迎星箭企业把“家”安在文昌，依托“出厂即发射、返回即复用”的产业模式，压缩火箭卫星发射周期、降低运营成本；欢迎数据企业把“平台”搭在文昌，依托海南自贸港数据安全有序流动政策和商业航天卫星数据加工贸易区，企业数据产品可从这里走向全国、走向东盟、走向世界；欢迎文旅企业把“梦”种在文昌，这里集发射场、滨海椰林、南洋文化和红色资源于一体，航天科普研学、主题旅游、文创开发等业态蓬勃发展，文旅企业在此机遇无限。　　同时，文昌欢迎金融机构和产业资本把“活水”引到文昌，海南自贸港政策为境内外资本参与商业航天产业创造有利条件，航天保险、融资租赁、供应链金融等特色业态加快培育，金融与商业航天产业融合发展空间广阔。　　“文昌将持续优化营商环境，让每一位来文昌干事创业的人都能安心工作、舒心生活，让每一家扎根文昌的企业都能放心投资、专心发展。