The Washington Times quotes South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Claude Rakisits on why the Afghanistan forces are struggling against the Taliban despite years of US training:
“In the vacuum of all this military leaving, I’m not surprised the Taliban is making trouble,” said Claude Rakisits, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “Away from Kabul, they’ve basically got open-pitched battles going on with tanks on the Taliban side.”
“It’s really serious,” he added. “The bottom line — and I’m sure the Obama administration doesn’t want to hear this, because psychologically they want out of Afghanistan — is that 100,000 international troops weren’t able to defeat the Taliban for more than 10 years, so how do you expect 10,000 advisory troops can make a difference in terms of the Afghan military’s capability in that fight today?”