An Afghan War veteran describes the ‘detachment’ of watching his war end

In the beginning, I was mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually committed to the cause of standing up Afghanistan’s armed forces so they could one day directly confront the Taliban and protect their sovereign territory, as every state has the right to do and obligation to do. I quickly realized how unrealistic such an expectation was.

Anyone who’d spent five minutes in Afghanistan anytime in the last 20 years knew immediately that it was a failed state waiting to happen. The grift was indescribable, the level of incompetence, cartoonishly absurd.

The equipment that we gifted the Afghan National Army — millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars worth of weapons, vehicles, generators and all manner of things fundamental to the execution of a robust military mission — would invariably end up in the bazaar outside of the base, for sale at greatly reduced prices.