Thread by @JJSchroden

"Last autumn, with the departure of American troops from #Afghanistan looming after the US signed a withdrawal deal with the #Taliban, several of the most senior security officials in Kabul urged President @ashrafghani to make some hard choices." 1/n

theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…

@ashrafghani "The Afghan army & police needed to retrench, figures incl the then defense minister, Assadullah Khalid, told Ghani. Remote outposts & rural areas where troops held little more than the cluster of govt & security buildings that make up a district center should be abandoned." 2/n

@ashrafghani "Troops & ammunition drawn back from these areas could focus on the fight for more important assets, such as key roads & border crossings, as forces adapted to the loss of the US air force & other technical support that had been critical to fighting the Taliban, they argued." 3/n

@ashrafghani "The men urging this strategic retreat had, between them, years of experience fighting in the different iterations of #Afghanistan’s civil wars, which have now stretched on for more than 40 years in a kaleidescope of shifting enemies and allies." 4/n

@ashrafghani "Ghani & his nat'l sec adviser, @hmohib, who have multiple prestigious degrees but no battlefield experience, refused. 'We’re not giving up one inch of our country,' Mohib reportedly told the assembled officials, according to mult sources with knowledge of the discussions." 5/n

@ashrafghani @hmohib "Less than a year later, swathes of the country – including those remote outposts and many more – have fallen to the Taliban, and thousands of soldiers have fled the country or surrendered to the militants, handing over their equipment and weapons." 6/6