With Afghanistan already facing the huge handicap of 40% of its military flat out not existing, one would think they’d be more careful with the remaining 60%. They’re not, however, and the Afghan military is now facing a growing number of desertions.
Undermanned and poorly trained, many Afghan troops see their involvement in the war as “suicide missions.” In a country whose economy has been all but destroyed by generations of foreign occupation, that’s par for the course, but many say they’re not even getting their meager paychecks on a regular basis.
Being in the Afghan military doesn’t pay well, and widespread corruption means it’s not unusual for those paychecks to disappear long before they make their way to the troops on the ground. That’s similarly the case with ammunition and food, leaving the troops more or less perpetually in dire straits.
The undependable pay means that one of the few groups that the Afghan military reliably attracts, the desperately poor who have run out of options, aren’t doing much better in taking the extremely dangerous job of front-line soldier than they were being chronically unemployed.
The corruption woes in the Afghan military seem to just be getting worse, and with such a broad swathe of the military existing only on paper, and solely so warlords can rob foreign bankrollers blind, there seems to be little interest in serious reform.
I wonder what some of those “business experts” turned politicians have to say about paying employees (that’s what they are – employees of the US taxpayers) who aren’t there or don’t exist at all. Would these “business experts” pay someone who didn’t exist or never showed up for work? Maybe some responsible media-type (cough-cough) might ask them at the next gaggle?
If they desert their jobs they no longer get paid. Do you think they have direct deposit or something? Smh – it’s Afghanistan pal – cash payroll only….good grief ..
The US taxpayer pays the salaries of the Afghan soldiers and police. We pay whether the Afghan soldiers/police show up or not based on troops levels reported by the Afghan officials because the money is delivered to the Afghans for the Afghan officials responsible for paying their people to disburse. This has nothing to do with the actual Afghan troops. It’s all about the USG sending US taxpayer dollars to pay for Afghan troops/police who are not there. Categorize it as waste. I’m sorry if my original comment was too confusing for you.
Good. The sooner our cannon fodder walk away and give the middle finger to foreign imperialist invaders the better off they will be in the long run.
If they desert they no longer get paid. Do you think they have direct deposit or something?smh – it’s Afghanistan pal – cash payroll only….