All language subtitles for Secret.Wars.Uncovered.S02E04.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_Subtitles01_Unnamed

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.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services