Afghan Forces Face Intense Taliban Test As Foreign Troops Leave By Mushtaq Mojaddidi, with Qasim Nauman in Seoul 08/03/21 AT 11:31 PM Taliban territorial gains have raised doubts about the Afghan military's strength with foreign troops all but gone -- a showdown between two very different forces in which experts say morale could be as decisive as equipment and personnel. It is not a conventional military engagement, but one that pits a large army -- raised and equipped by a superpower -- against a smaller but well-supplied jihadist group backed by narco-dollars. The United States has poured tens of billions of dollars into Afghanistan's defence forces, providing modern weapons and high-tech equipment, including night-vision goggles, attack helicopters, armoured vehicles and surveillance drones.