The article discusses “Why Taliban Won The War? Factors that made Taliban victory possible. How did the Taliban win so quickly? Who won the Afghanistan war 2021? Why Taliban Won The War?”

Despite limited resources, outdated weapons and scattered leadership, the Taliban won the war. The whole world including the indigenous people of Afghanistan were expecting victory of the United States of America (U.S.A.) and her allies, the result surprised the world. Whereas thirty plus powerful states (NATO members 30) with modern weapons, technology, tactics and command and control system on one side, a few thousands guerilla fighters with resources near to nothing on the other. The result of twenty years war (longest war in US and human history) was unexpected and shocking. But this did not happen over a night. There were many reasons that draw the course of this war, some of which we have highlighted in below paragraphs.       

MCQs

This result of the war was predicted by many war and history analysts twenty years ago. Even some of the members of war cabinet of USA knew this since day one but they believed they could change the course of history. Late General Hamid Gul, the famous war and defense analyst of Pakistan in an interview with a private Television channel had predicted the lost of USA and victory of the Taliban a decade ago. 

Pakistan’s Role in Afghan Peace Process

Why Taliban Won The War?

The concept of war was totally different for both the rival groups. For the forces of America and her allies it was a war to save the national interests of their countries. For Taliban it was a war of freedom and war of defense. For them the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces were the oppressor who had attacked their land. This belief strengthens and refresh their will of war from time to time.

Taliban to their benefit added the element of Jihad to the war by exploiting the religious affinity of the people. As majority of the NATO forces were non-Muslims, this depicted the war in mind of many indigenous people as the war between Islam and Christianity. George W. Bush Jnr. in early days of the Afghan War termed it the second crusade war. This firmed the belief of people in war of Islam and Christianity and so a large number of people joined the Taliban side.

For USA and her allies, the Afghan war was challenging since day one. They have had little knowledge of the area, its people and climate. While in comparison with the NATO forces, Taliban were at advantage because they were waging war at their homeland. They knew the climate, topography and other odds of the country better than the NATO forces do.

US Major Mistakes in Afghan War on Terror

Another major reason was the will and morale of both the forces. An unending war with no clear victory had exhausted American forces and so their morale was down. Taliban on the other hand were expecting an immediate victory and so their morale was high.    

Many powerful states and empires had attacked Afghanistan in the past but none of them could conqueror and successfully subdue the people of this land. This belief alone played a vital role in the success of Taliban against the West.   

Islamophobia is Not Freedom Of Speech

In final hours of the war, the following four factors made the quick victory of Taliban possible. These factors were;

The first factor was the Doha Agreement reached between America and Taliban, which involved withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan with the aim of bringing peace and stability to the country. The agreement bound US to refrain from air strikes. Previously these air strikes had formed an essential element of Afghan government’s defence. In the absence of US air strikes Taliban engaged themselves in military operations below the threshold that would trigger a breach of the Doha agreement. In doing so, the Taliban were successful in slowly seizing ground.

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The fragility of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) was the second important factor that led to the victory of Taliban. Poor training, weak leadership, illiteracy and lack of the will of fighting were some of the important reasons that had made ANSF weak and fragile.

Another important factor was the corruption embedded at the leadership level of the ANSF:  officers would undertake activities such as routinely diverting supplies to sell for profit and creating fake recruits to sign off salaries.

Finally, the Afghan Commandos, its US-trained special forces, which constituted a mere seven percent of the ANSF, were doing eighty percent of the fighting. Exhausted from the relentless struggle with the Taliban and unable to call upon US air strikes, their morale collapsed.

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