I'm not at all suggesting that the PA was a 'master of COIN' when it started ops. Those of us that have followed these events since PA deployments in FATA/Swat are painfully aware of the losses that the PA suffered. Yet it is also true that the PA adapted & evolved over the last several years. The Frontier Corps was transformed from a largely rag-tag tribal militia to a well trained and fairly equipped para-military force capable of undertaking COIN ops on its own with PA/PAF in supporting roles.
But by the same token, the US/NATO/ANA have also been fighting COIN ops for for 16 years now. They have spent hundreds of billions of dollars more than Pakistan on Afghan military & intelligence capacity building. They have better equipment and many magnitudes more resources. What these recent events point out is a massive failure of intelligence and failed training and capacity building programs. ANA logistical support appeared to be non existent, soldiers are poorly trained barring a few elite units. Thousands of Taliban massed and launched coordinated attacks across the country with the US/NATO/NDS/ANA having no clue what was about to happen.
What exactly does the US/NATO have to show for the hundreds of billions poured into training and capacity building of the ANA & Afghan intelligence agencies?
With respect to the argument that the US/NATO are seen as a foreign, occupying force, lending legitimacy & domestic support to the Taliban narrative - that was an issue pointed out from the beginning. It was one of the reasons Pakistan strongly opposed US strikes on Pakistani territory - there is simply no room domestically to be associated with US military action on Pakistani soil, even if coordinated between the Pakistan & US. Additionally, the US & Afghan policy of alienating Pakistan and courting India has been an absolute catastrophe.
