Afghanistan's 'ghost soldiers': thousands enlisted to fight Taliban don't exist

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Afghanistan's 'ghost soldiers': thousands enlisted to fight Taliban don't exist

Sune Engel Rasmussen in Babaji, Afghanistan
Tuesday 17 May 2016 06.00 BST

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With an estimated 25,000 troops officially based in Helmand, the government should have enough muscle to confront the Taliban.

The problem is many of those troops don’t exist.

Across Afghanistan, lists of troops and police officers are filled with fake names, or the names of men killed in the fighting, but not officially declared dead. Captain Wali and his men are in Babaji to fill the void of these “ghost soldiers”.

A recent investigation by Helmand’s provincial council found that approximately 40% of enlisted troops did not exist. The authors of an analysis commissioned by the Afghan government – and obtained by the Guardian – said the share might be even higher.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/17/afghanistan-ghost-soldiers-taliban-babaji

[DetlefK]

1. Same with the iraqi soldiers fighting ISIS.

Many iraqi units were simply understaffed. When ISIS launched its initial attacks, they fled instead of putting up a futile fight.