As the Taliban gains growing amounts of territory across Afghanistan, more and more members of the Afghan military are from homes which are no longer under Afghan government control. That’s bad news for them, and worse news for relatives back at home.
One Afghan soldier described getting a call from his father in the Kunar Province, informing him that because his son is in the military, the family is being “fined.” The fine included a Kalashnikov rifle, seven cartridge magazines and $1,000.
That’s a lot more than the Afghan Army pays, and the risk to their families is resulting in recruitment efforts within Afghanistan are nose-diving, with multiple provinces down 50% in recruitment.
With the US/NATO escalation in Afghanistan assuming that they’ll be embedding with the Afghan military. This is going to be difficult, however, with the Afghan military struggling to fulfill recruitment goals to have anywhere near enough troops to go on the offensive.