Original subtitles

NARRATOR: August 2021.

The city of Kabul is surrounded by Taliban soldiers.

- (shouting)

NARRATOR: The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani,

is unable to stop the Taliban takeover

without the help of the United States.

He resigns and flees the country.

The next day, the city erupts into chaos.

- (dramatic music)

- (horns beeping, shouting)

- (gunshots)

NARRATOR: Crowding the airport, thousands of Afghans

tried desperately to board planes to leave the country.

- (siren wails)

NARRATOR: The memory of the Taliban's authoritarian regime

of the late-1990s is still fresh in their minds.

- After 20 years of value...

valour and sacrifice,

it's time to bring those troops home.

NARRATOR: On August the 26th, two suicide bombings

killed dozens of civilians.

After 20 years of US occupation,

how did Afghanistan fall into a state of crisis once again?

And how responsible is the government in Washington

for the resurrection of the Taliban regime?

- (cannon fires)

MARK KIMMITT: We created the Frankenstein

that we later fought post-9/11.

- (gunfire)

- (tense music)

- (shouting)

- (engines drone)

- (gunfire)

- (dramatic music)

- (sombre music)

NARRATOR: Afghanistan,

the landlocked country located at the crossroads

between Central and South Asia,

has had a long history of foreign interference.

Bordered by Pakistan to the east and south,

Iran to the West and China to the northeast,

she was at the centre of the so-called Great Game

of the 19th century.

A power struggle between the British, Ottoman

and Russian Empires for control of the continent.

By 1919, the Kingdom of Afghanistan

had gained its independence and shortly after

made a treaty of friendship with the recently formed Soviet Union.

By the early 1950s, |King Mohammad Zahir Shah

set about trying to modernise the country.

- While relatively peaceful during the period of...

..rule under its monarchy,

development in Afghanistan was painfully slow.

And frustrated by what they saw as a lack of advancement for the country,

individuals within Afghan political society

began to organise along the lines of Marxist ideals

inspired by the Soviet Union.

NARRATOR: In 1953, after the appointment

of the King's cousin, Mohammad Daud Khan,

as prime minister,

Afghanistan strengthened its ties with the Soviet Union.

With the support of the USSR, Daud Khan modernised

the country's armed forces,

but continued ethnic friction between Daud

and the Pakistani government on the border

led to his removal in 1963.

King Zahir Shah then took over the reins of the nation himself.

A year later, Zahir Shah enacted a new constitution

that allowed the creation of a governing parliament

and the formation of political parties.

One of these, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan,

or PDPA, was established soon after.

It was led by the Pashtun politician Nur Muhammad Taraki,

and began operating in Afghanistan in 1965 with Soviet backing.

- Members of the Party were sent to Moscow

for political education and training,

and specialist advisers from organisations like the KGB

came into Afghanistan to help support and give advice

on the development of propaganda

and political objectives for the Party.

NARRATOR: In the late-1960s,

the worsening conditions in what was still

a largely rural economy prompted widespread discontent

and disenchantment with the ruling regime,

culminating in the uprising of 1973.

- The 1973 coup in Afghanistan involves King Zahir

and his cousin, Sardar Khan, who's a member of the military.

Now, King Zahir goes off to Great Britain

for medical help and assistance,

and so his cousin uses this as the prime opportunity

to take a military coup

rising up and ousting the King.

NARRATOR: Mohammad Daud Khan proclaimed the country a republic.

Announcing himself as the first President of Afghanistan.

But his reign would be short-lived.

- Despite trying to bring stability to the country,

Khan's uprising was far from successful.

FULLER: Khan's rule was short-lived as his own desire for personal power

managed to alienate moderates and progressives,

Marxists and the religious groups within Afghanistan.

Within a matter of years, he was overthrown in a coup

led by the PDPA, aided by the military.

And the Marxist-Leninist group came to power in 1978.

NARRATOR: On the 27th of April, 1978,

People's Democratic Party rebels

seized the Afghan presidential palace

in what would become known as the Saur Revolution.

President Daud Khan was killed in the assault.

Nur Muhammad Taraki of the PDPA

would now preside over the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Months later, in December,

Taraki's government signed a treaty of friendship

with the Soviet Union,

authorising the superpower to defend Afghanistan

by military action if necessary.

A Marxist government coming to power and aligning itself

with the Soviet Union was not popular with everyone.

Several Islamic groups opposed the foundation of a secular republic.

- Not only was this unacceptable to these religious groups, however,

but in the atmosphere of the Cold War,

the rise of a Marxist-Leninist group within Afghanistan

was unacceptable to the United States.

Pakistan, the neighbour of Afghanistan, was a close US ally

and a bulwark against the Soviet Union's ally of India.

Not only this, but in 1979,

America lost its close ally,

the Shah, in Iran, to a religious fundamentalist uprising

from Ayatollah Khomeini.

At this point, the CIA intervened

to try to overthrow and remove the communist government

within Afghanistan by providing support

to the religious groups collectively known as the Mujahideen.

- To understand why the US co-operated with the Mujahideen,

you've got to look back to that potent Cold War period.

Those tensions between the two nuclear superpowers.

Now the Mujahideen was seen as an anti-Soviet jihadi force.

They were in a struggle against the Soviet oppressors,

and so it made sense at that time for the US

to work with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

to not only fund and train the Mujahideen,

but to supply them with weapons to take on the Soviets.

NARRATOR: This covert operation

authorised by US President Jemmy Carter,

was initially to provide the Mujahideen

with non-combat materials

to enable them to expand propaganda and recruitment.

It wouldn't be long, however, before this evolved into much more

significant military support

and would ultimately become the longest running

and most expensive covert supply line in US history.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: Hafizullah Amin was one of the most important men

in the ruling PDPA and had been a key figure

in engineering the coup d'etat against Daud Khan.

In 1979, Amin plotted against then leader

of the PDPA and the country, Muhammad Taraki,

and ultimately had him assassinated.

Hafizullah Amin assumed the presidency

and his government instituted a policy of terror.

In just three months

he imprisoned, tortured and killed all those

who might be considered opponents and dissidents.

Amin's repressive agenda threatened to undermine

the USSR's influence in Afghan politics.

At the same time, he tried to improve relations with Pakistan

and the United States,

which triggered concern in Moscow.

- There were a number of factors

that ultimately drew the Soviet Union into Afghanistan

with a formal invasion.

The Soviet Union felt the PDPA was unable

to successfully neutralise the Mujahideen groups

and grew increasingly anxious that this Islamist revolution

might spread up through Afghanistan,

north up into the Soviet Union's borders,

and cause further unrest within its own territory.

Finally, the United States played a role here too,

stirring up Cold War tensions

by inviting the leader of the PDPA into their consulate

for a series of meetings.

Nothing was occurring in these meetings

other than the sharing of tea.

But in the supercharged tensions of the Cold War,

that was enough to trigger paranoia amongst Soviet leadership

and to bring about the full invasion of Afghanistan.

- (tense music)

NARRATOR: On December the 24th, 1979,

around 30,000 Soviet troops crossed the border into Afghanistan.

Paratroopers were dropped into the outskirts of Kabul

to carry out the secret operation Storm-333.

Initiated by Soviet intelligence.

- In order to create minimal resistance

for the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan,

KGB advisers work to trick Amin...

telling him that the soldiers that would be arriving

were arriving to defend against the Mujahideen

rather than coming to overthrow him and his government.

Those same KGB advisors convinced Amin

to give a speech publicly to the Afghan people,

telling them about the arrival of the Russians.

NARRATOR: So successful was the KGB deception

that Amin was persuaded to host a banquet for his inner circle

on the 27th of December 1979

to welcome a PDPA member from Russia.

- During that meal, Russian chefs poisoned the entire group,

meaning that the Afghan government

simply wasn't ready to respond as the Soviet troops began to arrive.

In fact, as Russian paratroopers and Special forces

were arriving to attack the palace,

Amin believed that Russian troops would come to save him

from this attack and didn't believe his advisors when they told him

that those attacking were actually the Russian troops.

- (dramatic music)

- The Soviet takeover was fast and it was brutal.

They took control of 20 key points throughout Kabul,

including the palace,

and they assassinated Amin and his entire leadership staff

installing their own chosen successor.

NARRATOR: That same night, the Soviets' preferred candidate

to lead the country, Babrak Karmal,

assumed the presidency

and announced to the Afghan people the death of Amin

and the end of his brutal regime.

- (cheering)

NARRATOR: The son of a well-connected general

Karmal was one of the founding members of the PDPA.

Serving in the National Assembly from 1965

to Daud Khan's coup in 1973.

He was the head of the PDPA's pro-Soviet Banner faction,

which gave the United States its pretext for covert intervention.

- Given that the Afghan War came after the Vietnam War,

there was a sense, particularly in the United States,

that this was going to be their chance at some payback.

The Soviets, after all, had been strong supporters

of the North Vietnamese.

And so...they were going to help the rebels.

NARRATOR: Although the CIA's covert operations began

during the Carter administration,

it was the Reagan administration from 1981

that played a decisive role in supporting the Mujahideen

against the Soviets.

- (man shouts)

- The Reagan administration dramatically escalated

the aid that was being given, first in the form of training camps

in which not only Afghan Mujahideen were trained,

but also they began to encourage more and more jihadists

from across the Arab world, from Egypt, from Saudi Arabia,

from Libya, to travel and to train and to fight.

These camps were set up and funded by the CIA,

but were run by the Pakistani ISI.

And at their height,

they were turning between 18 to 20,000 graduates out

to fight the Soviets each year.

NARRATOR: Thousands of young warriors

from various Middle Eastern countries

who called themselves Afghan Arabs joined the Mujahideen

in their efforts to repel the Soviets from Muslim lands.

By the end of 1980, the Soviets controlled

all the main cities and military bases in Afghanistan.

The Mujahideen, meanwhile,

controlled much of the rest of the territory,

organised in guerrilla groups

which could hide out in the mountains.

- Reagan administration negotiated with allies in Saudi Arabia

to double the payment.

For every dollar that Congress authorised

for the Mujahideen to be provided with arms,

the Saudis also matched.

This meant that the Mujahideen

were incredibly well equipped with a solid and constant flow of weapons

being provided to them via Pakistani intelligence services.

NARRATOR: By the mid-1980s

the more than 150,000 Mujahideen rebels

were managing with international support to hold back

the 300,000 strong Afghan army and its 80,000 Soviet allies.

Against the odds, the Mujahideen were gaining more and more ground.

- By 1986, popularity for the war is decreasing in the Soviet Union

and the casualty numbers are mounting.

But things really turn up a notch for the Soviet Union

when the US supplies Stinger missiles to the Mujahideen.

And these are shoulder-launched missiles

that allow the Mujahideen to take down Soviet attack helicopters.

It's at this point that the Soviets start to negotiate full withdrawal.

NARRATOR: With a well-equipped and trained enemy

resolutely holding out,

and the costs of the war exceeding a billion dollars

Mikhail Gorbachev's new regime in Moscow

decided to cut its losses.

In July 1986, Gorbachev announced the withdrawal

of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

- From Gorbachev's point of view,

by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan,

he would win brownie points with the West as a peacemaker.

When the Soviet General Staff some years into the war was asked,

"OK, what would it take to really win this war militarily?"

They said, "Look, if you really want us to win this war,

we're gonna have to seal the entire border and go through this place

town by town, village by village.

And we would need a million men."

Well, no Soviet leader could afford the political and economic cost

of that kind of a deployment.

NARRATOR: The signing of the Geneva Accords

between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1988

with the United States and Soviet Union

signing as international guarantors,

closed this bloody chapter in Afghanistan's history.

The reality was that Gorbachev could no longer afford

economically or politically to wage war.

- The ten-year Soviet War in Afghanistan

was devastating, truly devastating.

The Soviets, after all, used often

very, very indiscriminate tactics.

And all told, in those ten years,

the Soviets lost maybe 15,000 troops.

Afghans... Could well be a million Afghans perished

through those ten years.

NARRATOR: The war had terrible implications

for the Afghan people.

In addition to the enormous death toll,

thousands of Afghans had been displaced by the conflict.

- I haven't seen my grandparents, I haven't seen my relatives,

because we were forced to leave the country back then.

I was three months old. So, that's one example.

Thousands, millions of people being forced to leave their homes

and migrate to neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Iran.

And some of them were lucky,

even made it to Europe and the US.

But most importantly, it technically disrupted

the whole trajectory of development in Afghanistan.

NARRATOR: Even without US support, the Mujahideen continued

to fight against the Afghan government until 1992.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union

they seized power and established the Islamic State of Afghanistan.

Would this finally be the end of the internal struggle in Afghanistan?

And was the US aware that the same anti-Soviet forces

they had financed and trained might come back to haunt them in future?

Even then there were signs that there would be

significant repercussions from US interference in the region.

- There's something of a myth that in some way

the CIA or the United States was ignorant to the idea

that they were funding groups that were at their core

equally as anti-American as they were anti-Soviet.

This isn't actually the case, and the CIA was well aware

of what they were dealing with here.

There are dozens of reports in which the group

reports back to the Reagan administration

that once the Soviet Union leaves Afghanistan,

these groups will remain dangerous and anti-American

and may well turn their attentions to attacking American assets.

- (roar of airplane engine)

- (explosion booms)

- (person shouts) - (sirens wail)

NARRATOR: On September the 11th, 2001,

the United States would reap what it had sown in Afghanistan

in the most devastating way imaginable.

- We created the Frankenstein that we later fought post-9/11.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: In 1992, a coalition of Mujahideen parties

announced the foundation of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.

The different factions had initially agreed

to rotate the head of the government.

But this understanding was short-lived.

Rival militias soon vied for influence

and inter-ethnic tensions flared.

A bloody civil war exploded that same year.

In 1994, out of this armed conflict

emerged the Islamic fundamentalist group known as the Taliban,

meaning the students.

It was formed in the south of the country

where religious seminarians of Pashtun ethnicity

longed to create a strict Islamic society

faithful to their orthodox teachings of the Koran.

Their creation was influenced by the efforts

of Saudi Arabian Sunni Islam fundamentalists

and the Pakistani Secret Service - ISI.

In the 1980s, they had established Muslim teaching schools

called madrassas, to radicalise millions

of displaced Afghani children.

So they would one day return to establish a Sunni Islamic state.

- Within those madrassas,

a strict extremist curriculum was taught,

preparing the next generation of Sunni radical Islamists

ready to fight for Pakistan and Saudi Arabia's interests

against the likes of Iran.

When the United States and the Soviet Union both withdrew,

it was those Mujahideen groups turning upon one another

that created the power vacuum and the insecurity

that allowed a group like the Taliban

to come from these madrassas

and to promise one thing to the Afghan people - stability.

That stability came at a great cost of personal freedoms,

of religious freedoms, sexual freedoms.

But what they did bring was control,

and they drove out the exploitative warlords.

And for some Afghans that trade was one,

at least in the short term, they were willing to make.

NARRATOR: The Taliban, however,

soon expanded their area of influence

beyond the pastoral Pashtun regions into the main urban centres.

They began a violent takeover of the south of the country,

which soon spread.

- The Mujahideen take control of the country.

But they aren't united in that leadership

and there's lots of bitter infighting.

And this allows the Taliban to start to rise

and take control in south Kandahar.

The Mujahideen don't effectively respond to this,

and the Taliban continue their growth.

By 1996, they rise to power and they take Kabul,

instilling their strict form of Islamic teachings.

NARRATOR: The Taliban regime adheres to a strict view

of Islamic Sharia law.

This is a code of conduct that prohibits women

from holding public office,

encourages prosecution for conduct considered impure,

and applies harsh penalties to the breaking of the law,

such as stoning, the amputation of limbs

and capital punishment.

Under the uncompromising leadership of Mohammad Mullah Omar,

the Taliban regime promoted an ultra-nationalist agenda

marked by the suppression of tribal Pashtuns.

The deposed Mujahideen government

fled to the north of the country where they formed

the Northern Alliance,

with support from Russia, India, Iran and Tajikistan.

The Taliban regime was also recognised as legitimate

by the Saudi and Pakistani governments.

- Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan

were not purely on account of the request of their ally,

the United States.

Their long-running rivalry with India

meant that it was a determination of the Pakistani government

that Afghanistan was to remain an Islamist country

and was to be Sunni in terms of its political dominance.

- America is very reliant on Pakistan

because Pakistan has the border.

It has the closest connections with the Mujahideen fighters.

Equally importantly, all the different rebel fighters

have their own self-interest.

NARRATOR: But unknown to its international supporters,

the Taliban had also allied themselves

with a terrorist group that was about to change the world forever.

Al Qaeda was born in the late-1980s

under the leadership of Osama bin Laden,

a Saudi multi-millionaire

who had joined the ranks of the Mujahideen.

- His ideas were primarily formed in Afghanistan

during the war against the Soviets.

It continued under him

when he was thrown out of Saudi Arabia into Sudan, Khartoum,

and then he moved from there into Afghanistan.

So Osama bin Laden very much

was the front man for al Qaeda.

And Ayman Zawahiri, who had been in an Egyptian prison,

became sort of the intellectual philosopher behind the movement.

NARRATOR: After his release from prison in Egypt,

Ayman al-Zawahiri met bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Zawahiri was the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, EIJ,

an extremist organisation that worked closely

with al Qaeda from its creation.

In the early-'90s, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri were both in Sudan,

and while the EIJ was plotting to assassinate

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,

Al Qaeda had bigger objectives.

- Osama bin Laden's hatred of the Soviet Union

turned towards the West when the US got involved

in the Gulf War in 1990, 1991.

They sent 300,000 troops

to be stationed in Saudi Arabia near Islamic holy sites.

Now, this is something that was unacceptable to Osama bin Laden,

and it's at this point he turns his struggle against the West.

- Bin Laden bought into what is known as the far enemy theory.

The idea that the near enemy,

corrupt Arab governments that exploited their people

and didn't follow correct Islamic teachings

in the form of their governance,

such as the Saudi monarchy, for example,

were propped up and supported by the United States.

And ultimately the only way you could bring about change

within the Middle East was to drive out the far enemy first.

NARRATOR: Positioning itself toward an ideological struggle

with the West, al Qaeda was the first armed organisation

of fundamentalist Islam

to achieve a major international projection.

Almost from the beginning,

bin Laden had the United States of America in his crosshairs.

- I think the most famous attacks were those in East Africa

well before 9/11, when they went after the American embassies...

..and created a significant amount of destruction.

NARRATOR: Al Qaeda's simultaneous attack

on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998

left more than 200 dead.

Putting bin Laden on the FBI's most wanted list.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: For refuge, bin Laden went to the Taliban

who granted him safe haven on Afghan soil,

further strengthening their ties with al Qaeda.

- Safe havens allow terrorist groups to meet, to coalesce,

to exchange ideas, to recruit new members,

to train and to plot.

The 911 plot took over five years,

and Afghanistan was integral in the ability to do that.

NARRATOR: In 1998, President Bill Clinton's administration

launched a retaliatory attack on two al Qaeda targets.

- (spraying)

NARRATOR: A training camp in Afghanistan

and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan

where the organisation was suspected of manufacturing chemical weapons.

The Operation Infinite Reach was carried out

on August the 20th, 1998.

Although the missiles succeeded in destroying their targets,

they neither took out bin Laden nor did they make a significant dent

in al Qaeda's operational capabilities.

In October 2000, al Qaeda launched a suicide attack

on the US Navy destroyer USS Cole

in Yemen's Aden harbour.

The explosion killed 17 US servicemen, injuring a further 42.

This prompted Clinton to order a top-secret operation

against al Qaeda codenamed Delenda EST

or "must be destroyed".

This involved applying diplomatic pressure

to deny bin Laden safe haven,

imposing sanctions to cut off his supply funds

and launching covert operations

aimed at capturing or assassinating him.

As early as December 2000, the FBI and CIA

warned that bin Laden could be planning a bloody operation

on American soil.

Months later, in August 2001, bin Laden himself,

in an interview with the London newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi,

spoke of the imminence of an unprecedented attack

against the United States.

- (roar of airplane engine) - (explosion booms)

- (people screaming)

NARRATOR: On the morning of September the 11th, 2001,

the most devastating terrorist attack in history

was launched by al Qaeda in New York and Washington, DC.

- (people screaming)

NARRATOR: Nearly 3,000 people were killed

and tens of thousands injured

in a catastrophe that would shock the entire world.

- (dramatic music)

- We went into Afghanistan

soon after the attacks on 9/11 for two purposes.

Number one: to go against al Qaeda.

And number two: to go against those

who had harboured and provided safe haven.

And in that case, it was the Taliban.

NARRATOR: Afghanistan, which had been invaded

20 years earlier by the Soviet Union,

now faced the might of the United States military.

In response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11,

the Bush administration launched its War On Terror

in pursuit of al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was believed to be in hiding

in the mountains of Afghanistan

under the protection of the Taliban.

On October the 7th, 2001,

Operation Enduring Freedom began.

The US Air Force and Allied troops

bombed al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan.

In a matter of weeks with the support of the Northern Alliance,

they had managed to seize Kabul

and drive the Taliban from power.

- (shouting)

NARRATOR: An interim government was established in December 2001

under the leadership of the former head of the Pashtun tribe

in Kandahar province, Hamid Karzai.

With United States support,

Karzai formally became President of the nation two years later.

But he was a mixed blessing.

- He did understand the fabric of Afghanistan's communities

and he was able to accommodate everyone in his government.

But he also...not able to utilise

billions of dollars being poured into Afghanistan

in the form of aid.

People paid the price in terms of poverty,

in terms of infrastructure.

Still Afghanistan is heavily depending on aid

and international assistance is as a result of that mismanagement.

NARRATOR: In late-2009, President Barack Obama

ordered a new US troop deployment to Afghanistan.

Known as the Surge...

it was a concerted attempt

to destroy the last of the country's insurgents

and enforce US-led governance.

At the same time, Obama launched a covert operation

to finally bring bin Laden to justice.

After ten years in hiding, he had at last been located -

not in Afghanistan but in neighbouring Pakistan.

- It was a risky operation.

We had no idea how the Pakistanis would respond

to what they considered a violation of their airspace.

You can imagine what it would be like

if we had violated the airspace of a friendly country,

come in, conducted an operation, and it wasn't him.

NARRATOR: On the 1st of May 2011, the US Government announced

the success of the operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden.

- The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date

in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda.

And on nights like this one, we can say to those families

who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda's terror,

justice has been done.

NARRATOR: After bin Laden's death,

Ayman al-Zawahiri took on the leadership of al Qaeda.

Neither the end of the war in Afghanistan

nor the definitive defeat of terrorism

had been truly accomplished.

- Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

We've damaged them, but we still have to defeat them.

NARRATOR: Furthermore, other fundamentalist terror groups

such as ISIS-K, emerged in the country.

- (machine-gunfire)

NARRATOR: Like the Soviets in the 1980s,

the Americans were embroiled in a war

from which they could not extricate themselves.

Until, that is...

A new President arrived in the White House

with new ideas on how to end the war.

- In Afghanistan my administration

is holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups,

including the Taliban.

The hour has come to at least try for peace.

NARRATOR: Although negotiations with the Taliban

began in 2019, it wasn't until February 2020

that the Doha Peace Agreements were finally concluded.

Under the Doha Accords

the US agreed that its troops would leave Afghanistan permanently

on May the 1st, 2021.

They would leave on the basis that the country would never again

be used as a base from which to launch terrorist attacks

against the United States.

In April 2021, the new President of the United States, Joe Biden,

announced that the withdrawal of US forces would end

on the 11th of September

to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

But the chaotic nature of the US withdrawal

left Afghanistan dangerously vulnerable.

It was exposed once again to the one united force

which had been biding its time and stockpiling its weapons.

By the beginning of August 2021,

practically the whole country, with the exception of Kabul,

was once again in the hands of the Taliban.

Incapable of resistance,

President Ashraf Ghani resigned on the 15th of August

and fled the country,

leaving Kabul to the Taliban.

The long-term US influence in a complex,

multi-ethnic country like Afghanistan

hasn't had the results the White House expected.

A complex culture and nascent political landscape

allied to a diverse range of religious,

territorial and ethnic interests

have made Afghanistan highly-resistant to change.

- We went from conducting a military operation to nation-building.

And it's that nation-building project

which made the situation as big as it became

and kept us there as long as it did.

NARRATOR: At the end of the 1980s,

after ten years of trying to impose its will in the country,

the Soviets were forced to retreat from Afghanistan.

In 2021, after 20 years of occupation,

the United States was forced to do the same.

- So often we think about proxies as being puppets,

as being these...these fighters who are being controlled and sponsored

by Pakistan, by America.

But they all have their own interests, their own knowledge,

their own intelligence that they might well not share

with the Americans, with the Pakistanis,

which makes the relationship much more complex

than the popular narrative of...

CIA sponsoring rebels...

..overthrow Soviets.

- Along the way from 2001 to 2021,

hundreds of people lost their lives just to make it happen,

just to change the things in Afghanistan.

Now, the question is that whether all those lives were wasted in vain

or whether all those treasures that were being spent,

they were just spent for nothing.

NARRATOR: Today, in the midst of the crisis

that has once again engulfed Afghanistan,

the future remains uncertain.

More than three million Afghans have had to flee their homes

and more than two million have been displaced

to neighbouring countries.

- There is a humanitarian crisis right now inside of Afghanistan,

so we'll see if the pressure from inside the country

causes the Taliban to moderate their behaviour,

at least in the eyes of the international community,

so we can start putting humanitarian assistance back in the country.

- Life is all about hope.

Now, for Afghans, unfortunately, that hope is not there.

And when that hope is not there, it's very difficult.

NARRATOR: Without hope

there is always the possibility that terrorist groups

might flourish in the region,

and Western support may be required to drive them out once again.

This time, however, we may be fighting alongside those

who were once our enemies.

- If ISIS-K remains a threat not only to the Taliban

and inside of Afghanistan, but becomes a new al Qaeda,

obviously there are some that believe

that we need to join forces with the Taliban for that fight.

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