Afghanistan Is Losing The War Against The Taliban

Members of the Afghan Army Honor Guard after a funeral for their fallen comrades at the military hospital headquarters in Kabul in February 2014. A raid by the Taliban killed 21 soldiers in their bunks. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

New York Times: Afghan Security Forces Struggle Just to Maintain Stalemate

KABUL, Afghanistan — After suffering setbacks and heavy casualties at the hands of the Taliban in 2014, Afghan security forces came into this year with what Afghan and Western officials acknowledge were relatively modest goals: hang on till the end of the fighting season without major collapses.

But with months of heavy fighting still ahead, 2015 is already shaping up to be worse for the Afghan Army and the national police, even as President Obama is set to begin deliberating this year on whether to follow through with a complete withdrawal of the United States military assistance mission here in 2016.

The forces are struggling to maintain a stalemate: an at-least token government presence in the hundreds of district capitals handed over by departing NATO combat troops.

WNU Editor: The Afghan Army's casualty and desertions rates and numbers are completely off the chart. If current trneds continue, there will be nothing left of the Afghan Army by next year. To say that this is another debacle of U.S. foreign/Pentagon/White House policy is an understatement .... but a part of me is now wondering if President Obama even cares.