soldiers on their rosters so commanders could pocket their salaries. the new york times has reported how one important army corps meant to have 16,000 men and women has around half that. the soldiers were poorly paid, ill—fed and erratically supplied. in kandahar, where there was fierce fighting, there are reports of the army being fed only potatoes. and many of the security forces ran out of ammunition. the collapse of the security forces started in remote outposts. and we are starting to see a certain pattern developing. there was little logistic support for these and the soldiers and police units there were starving and had run out of ammunition. the taliban would surround them and promised safe passage if they surrendered and left behind their equipment. and a common complaint from the soldiers and police who had been at these outposts was that there was no air support. let's go back several years. my colleague paul would talk about this