There was growing concern about Taliban military gains in the provinces. The Taliban were blocking Afghanistan’s road network and progressively isolating regional capitals. The government’s response was ineffective; its military were running short of serviceable helicopters and were putting too much of their effort into maintaining checkpoints and positions of questionable value, soaking up people and resources. There was an alarming lack of grip or cohesion within the republic.
Men who had not been paid or resupplied, in many cases for months, saw no reason to fight and die for a republic whose leaders evidently had little regard for them and no strategy worth dying for, and whose foreign allies were making for the door.