newsAfghanistan in 2021: A military and political disaster its incompetent brokers would like us all to forget
Terrified Afghans try to attach themselves to American planes going anywhere far away from the incoming Taliban
By Trevor Grundy
Five years ago today, (August 15) Kabul was captured by the Taliban, ending a 20- year war led by America and Britain and NATO allies that cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars.
The war aim was to make sure that a terrorist movement close to Al Qaeda would never again hold power in Afghanistan.
From August 15, 2021 to the end of that month there were scenes of unforgettable chaos at Kabul Airport where thousands of terrified men, women and children tried to cling to planes – any planes, going anywhere.
A former British International Development Secretary, Rory Stewart, told the producer of The World this Weekend (BBC Radio 4/ August 9, 2026): “It was the most extraordinary humiliation. It was one of those things – I think along with the 2008 financial crisis – which ruined people’s faith in politicians and governments. Quite understandably, they concluded that these people had no idea what they were doing.”
Rory Stewart who worked in Afghanistan after 2001
Britain and America spent 20 years (from 2001-2021) trying to get rid of the Taliban. America and Britain spent over two trillion dollars. Yet, five short years ago, they ended up handing the country back to the Taliban which today re-rules.
An Iron fist in an iron glove.
Especially where women and girls are concerned.
Sir Laurie Bristow, the man in charge of saying a British “goodbye” to Afghanistan
It was the job of the British Ambassador, Sir Laurie Bristow to oversee with British side of the disaster.
He’d only been in the job for two months when the axe fell on his head.
He and his staff spent most of the time destroying documents that might embarrass the British government in London.
What were they?
We will never know.
Reports say the British even destroyed pictures of their queen.
A woman running a country!
What would a collection of Islamist/terrorist nutcases think about that?
Bristow said burning top secret files was only part of the job.
He was also spending time at the airport processing visas so some of the Afghans who had sided with with the American and British, many of them courageous interpreters, later abandoned by the people they worked for.
Bristow flew back to the UK on August 29.
Two weeks before the British ambassador flew home, the former President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, left Kabul, with some of his top aides, for the United Arab Emirates. (UAE).
Four cars took them from State House to the Airport. In the cars were crates full of money. Not everything could be packed into the helicopter that took them away from chaos. So, millions of whatever it was were abandoned on the runway.
How many children in Afghanistan will ever walk again? We will never know. .
The Taliban had been in charge of the country from 1996 to 2001.
When they took over again in 2021, they told journalists that they were a new breed of men – not at all fanatical like their predecessors. And how they all respected the rights of women.
It’s brain damaging to remember how many top British and American “strategists” echoed their crafted but lying words.
The situation today is, for most people, worse than when the Taliban first ruled, 30 years ago.
- 22 million Afghans depend on humanitarian aid to survive. Total population around 46 million.
- 90 per cent of children live in food poverty.
- 7 million children suffering from wasting diseases.
- At least one million are suffering from severe malnutrition.
Some of the victims of a 20 year war that went so terribly wrong
Since 2021 there has been a catastrophic reduction in aid.
In Britain it has fallen from .7 ground percent of GDP to .3 percent of GDP.
But those on the ground say that there is no chance of the Taliban collapsing in the near future and Rory Stewart told the BBC that life for Afghans was today is safer than before and one can stop a car outside Kabul and have a picnic by the roadside.
But the rights for girls and women have been rolled back and is worse that when the Taliban previously ran the country.
Constitutionally, women and men have the same rights but that’s meaningless in a country where women are forced to hide their faces, cannot go to secondary school or university and where child marriages are legal.
So, don’t be fooled by the bull.
When you land at Kabul you can see women airport official but that’s sheer PR for the Taliban.
Stewart said: “Truly, the Taliban is a brutal, authoritarian, chauvinistic, non-democratic regime and women’s and women’s rights are far worse. Domestic violence is rising. But it’s also true that in terms of security and safety Afghanistan is much safer today than it has been for any time for the last 25 years.”
In short, there is no credible opposition on the ground.
Interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq cost in the region of US$s 4 trillion and Rory Stewart said that about 95 percent of the money spent by Britain was wasted.
We might never be told the exact cost of the 20- year war in terms of lost lives and money churcked away I spades.
Stewart reckons 95 percent of British “aid” money was wasted.
British soldiers were militarily involved in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 as part of an international coalition in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to take part in the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. A total of 457 fatalities of British Forces personnel in Afghanistan.
The vast majority of fatalities took place following the re-deployment of British forces to the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.
The War in Afghanistan killed 176,000 people in Afghanistan: 46,319 civilians, 69,095 military and police and at least 52,893 opposition fighters.