You may think that what happens in Afghanistan doesn't matter to you. You couldn't be more wrong. We have the same rampant corruption problem in the United States. You can no longer count on our military to repel any foreign invader to this country but, you still have to pay for that military with your taxes.
https://www.rt.com/news/539906-ghost-so ... n-victory/Afghanistan's former finance minister has claimed that “ghost soldiers” and corrupt government officials were responsible for the Taliban's ability to quickly seize control of the country, as NATO forces withdrew their personnel.
Speaking on Wednesday, Khalid Payenda, who served as the Afghan finance minister immediately before the Taliban's takeover, claimed that around 300,000 soldiers and police officers listed on the government's payroll did not exist.
The so-called “ghost soldiers” were kept on the books by corrupt officials who pocketed their wages, according to Payenda, who said they were “desertions [and] martyrs who were never accounted for” by commanders who “would keep their bank cards.”
The situation allowed the Taliban to quickly seize control of territory in Afghanistan, as American and NATO forces withdrew from the country. Due to false accounting by provincial officials, Payenda says that the actual numbers had been inflated by up to six times the actual figure.
The United States had previously raised concerns about the actual number of troops and police in Afghanistan, with a 2016 US Special Inspector General report laying out those fears. “Neither the United States nor its Afghan allies know how many Afghan soldiers and police actually exist,” the report stated.
Alongside the issue of “ghost soldiers,” Payenda suggested that military officials had engaged in “double-dipping,” where they had accepted government salaries and payments from the Taliban to surrender without any resistance.
