# Trump calls for Biden to "Resign in Disgrace" **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 16, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-biden-to-resign-in-disgrace/948754 "2021-08-16T00:21:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 111
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-biden-to-resign-in-disgrace/948754/111 "2021-08-17T15:34:11Z")
> [@Lantern2](#): > > [Why the Afghan Army Fell to the Taliban - The Bulwark](https://www.thebulwark.com/why-the-afghan-army-fell-to-the-taliban/) > This is the best explanation I have read about why the Afghan army collapsed so quickly: > > > War is not just fighting on the battlefield. Logistics are vitally important. More to the point, Americans trained the Afghans to fight as we do, not like the Afghans used to, so they became reliant on our methods, tactics, and equipment, including air support and a complex system of military units that requires an exhaustive command and communications network. While we may have had good intentions and good reasons for making the Afghans reliant on these tools and techniques, we never taught the Afghans how to do them on their own. We did them for the Afghans ourselves. > > > > When, in April, President Biden abruptly announced our pending withdrawal, the American focus turned from logistical support to exit. On top of the 3,500 American members of the military, 17,000 more military contractors [stopped](https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2021-07-21/number-of-private-military-contractors-in-afghanistan-drops-precipitously-as-biden-pushes-withdrawal-plan) assisting the Afghans more or less overnight. The Afghan military lost the equivalent of two logistics divisions, without the time to adjust to the new reality, learn how to supply itself with logistical support—something we never taught them—and teach itself how to operate complicated American machines and equipment, which takes months, if not longer, to learn. The American personnel [didn’t even provide the courtesy](https://www.csis.org/analysis/special-inspector-general-afghanistan-reconstruction-sigar-high-risk-list) of fixing the equipment they were leaving behind, much of it down due to maintenance issues. At that point, fighting was not courageous. It was reckless. > > > > In the backrooms, Afghan military commanders immediately began to mitigate the situation to keep their heads—literally speaking. Out of fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones, they started studying their options. Some chose to keep on fighting, a decision that might soon cost their lives; some planned their escapes; others pledged loyalty to the Taliban, either genuinely or out of fear. > > Needless to say, it reflects poorly on the Biden administration that they didn’t understand these problems. I’ve read a number of assessments like this–and while I think they are spot on with failures in military strategy over the last 20 years, they don’t explain the rapid collapse. The rapid collapse was brokered the way deals are often brokered in Afghanistan–tribal leaders who often have family members on **both sides** of any conflict in Afghanistan, broker meetings, deals get cut. Most of the provinces fell with minimal or sometimes zero bullets being fired. I read an article from a former journalist with the Times of London who covered the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and he noted that we should have expected this because the same exact thing happened during that withdrawal. Many areas the communist Afghan state would have local commanders (who belong to say, Tribe X) would meet with Mujahadeen from the same tribe, a tribal elder would set up the meeting. They would come to an amicable arrangement and the communist government commander would agree to a transfer of control. Now the communist Afghan government actually had a stronger core than the Ghani government–they fought some pitched battles in some cases and actually persisted for years after the Soviets left, but they actually turned Kabul over peacefully as well. We made some mistakes in our design of the Afghan National Army, but they had the capacity to probably avoid being overrun, particularly in cities, where insurgents have serious limitations in their ability to wage large scale assaults against entrenched regular military. But the Taliban being from there, understood that in Afghanistan “deals can be made” that remove the need for such disastrous thing as urban sieges. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-biden-to-resign-in-disgrace/948754)._