The Taliban’s lightning victory was no surprise

As the debacle in Kabul unfolds, in Washington and London the mud slinging about who is to blame is beginning. British Generals are blaming ‘spineless Johnson and Biden’ and the ex military MP, Tom Tugendhat, contends that we should have stayed put. That the spectacular ending of Afghanistan’s brief interlude in ‘Western Liberalism’ appears to have been such a surprise only underlines the utter delusion of the last twenty years.

I worked for an aid agency in Kandahar at the height of the Taliban regime and remained in Afghanistan until just prior to the British deployment to Helmand. I travelled around the country working on electoral and justice issues, as a journalist and later political advisor to the EU Ambassador, where I followed military issues including the security sector, disarmament and drugs. I also sat in on meetings at with the Coalition, Nato and the Afghan Government. I later published a book and a PhD on issues surrounding ‘legitimacy’ in relation to the Afghan intervention.