The speed of the Taliban's advance since American withdrawal has surprised the media and internet alike. Journalists are rushing to explain their success, usually pointing to morale or corruption. While those forces are no doubt important, they do not paint a full picture of ANA defeat. A great book will eventually be written on the "fall of Kabul", but since this development is so new, no comprehensive explanation exists so far. This post is my attempt to draw together the reports, expert opinions, and literature on this topic to explain what happened.
An Army on Paper
The strength of the ANA in May was nominally 352,000, but Kabul could only prove 254,000 of those troops actually existed. Among those troops, 8% of the army (the commandos) were doing 70-80% of the fighting. The ANA was largely two armies: a mobile element capable of offensive operations, and a large auxiliary corps for internal security. While the structure of the Taliban was similar - the Taliban "Red Unit" being a cut above all other Taliban forces - the average Talib was more battle hardened and motivated than the average soldier of the ANA. Having spent two decades fighting the world's pre-eminent power, the Taliban's battle-hardened militias found the resistance of ANA auxiliary units to be a cakewalk. Insulated from the worst fighting, the brunt of which until very recently was borne by Afghan, American, and Australian SOF, the "C divisions" of the ANA, in contrast, were almost completely useless for combat purposes.
Dispersion of Force
Having never before conducted operations without significant foreign support, ANA high command had very little understanding of operational art - the maneuver of units before they are engaged in combat. While the ANA unarguably had excellent tactical leadership in some units (the commandos, as of 2017, had "never lost a battle"), its operational leadership was abysmal. Long after the US abandoned "surging" as a strategy, ANA leadership elected to disperse all its units - including its mobil
... keep reading on reddit ➡I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Do your worst!
They were cooked in Greece.
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
but then I remembered it was ground this morning.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale
Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments
They’re on standbi
A play on words.
Pilot on me!!
My daughter, Chewbecca, not so much.
Nothing, he was gladiator.
Or would that be too forward thinking?
Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
When I got home, they were still there.
What did 0 say to 8 ?
" Nice Belt "
So What did 3 say to 8 ?
" Hey, you two stop making out "
I won't be doing that today!
[Removed]
Where ever you left it 🤷♀️🤭
This morning, my 4 year old daughter.
Daughter: I'm hungry
Me: nerves building, smile widening
Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.
She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.
Thank you all for listening.
There hasn't been a post all year!
It was about a weak back.
You take away their little brooms
Hindus, on the other hand, never had any beef.
It’s pronounced “Noel.”
After all his first name is No-vac
What, then, is Chinese rap?
Edit:
Notable mentions from the comments:
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Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits
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French/Finnish art
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Country/Canadian rap
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Chinese/Country/Canadian rock
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Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap
