"Success in Afghanistan is measured in Washington by the ability to create an indigenous army that will battle the Taliban, provide security and stability for Afghan civilians and remain loyal to the puppet government of Hamid Karzai. A similar task eluded the Red Army, although the Soviets spent a decade attempting to pacify the country. It eluded the British a century earlier. And the United States, too, will fail." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"American military advisers who work with the Afghan National Army, or ANA, speak of poorly trained and unmotivated Afghan soldiers who have little stomach for military discipline and even less for fighting. They describe many ANA units as being filled with brigands who terrorize local populations, exacting payments and engaging in intimidation, rape and theft. They contend that the ANA is riddled with Taliban sympathizers. And when there are combined American and Afghan operations against the Taliban insurgents, ANA soldiers are fickle and unreliable combatants, the U.S. advisers say. " - Steven Perez

Astan is a hollow state utterly corrupt in the thrall of narco gangs and unable to deliver even the most rudimentary services to citizens. With institutional unemployment high and zero prospect of jobs the soldiers do what "bonus" soldiers did in Americas Civil war, they take their pay, their new rifle and cool unifoms and desert only to sign up for training and repeat the process... It'd be a joke but some of the folks being traned are taking those military skills back to their taliban comrades and using them to fight and kill Americans better - WarLord