Previous wars were fought to protect British India from the Russians. These wars left a legacy of hatred and bitterness. The most recent war was fought at the behest of the Americans. ibid.
They [British] had invaded for the first time in the 1830s. ibid.
For the US forces the Warlords remained valued allies. ibid.
It wasn’t always entirely clear just who the Americans were killing. ibid.
The Pakistanis had been the principle backers of the Taliban. ibid.
This is the story of that worsening war and how our politicians searched for a way out. This is a war that overturned our view of Britain’s warriors. A war that damaged our military reputation. Afghanistan: The Lion’s Last Roar? II, BBC 2014
The government’s decision to deploy troops to Afghanistan had been sold to the British public as an altogether more peaceful mission. ibid.
An almost total absence of staff with expertise about the region. ibid.
A force of seven and a half thousand was stretched too thin to win hearts and minds across the province let alone defeat the Taliban. ibid.
Nearly a third of Afghan MPs are women. ibid.
It’s long been known that you – the Burpers – are the greatest fighters in all Afghanistan. Carry on Up the Khyber 1968 starring Sid James & Kenneth Williams & Charles Hawtrey & Roy Castle & Joan Sims & Bernard Bresslaw & Peter Butterworth & Terry Scott & Angela Douglas et al, director Gerald Thomas, Khasi to Burpers
Cultivation of the opium poppy had sky-rocketed by more than 1,000 per cent within the first year of Afghanistan’s occupation. It was not long before the Taliban was rearming itself by taxing this opium harvest. Misha Glenny, McMafia
The intervention has caused Afghanistan to become an epicentre of organised crime, insurgency and terrorism. The country now nourishes all manner of organisations, from the Turkish smack cartels through the despotic leaders of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, not forgetting al-Qaeda, whose prime source of income in the region is the Afghan opium trade. ibid.
During the recent conflict in Afghanistan there were many ferocious encounters between the British army with the Taliban. But there was one in which the British came closer to disaster than any other: it happened in a remote desert town. Secret History: Heroes of Helmand: The British Army’s Great Escape, Channel 4 2016
‘They were attacking from all sides all of the time.’ ibid. soldier
The Taliban wanted to talk. ibid.
Coming home affected Easy Company in different ways. ibid.
[Mohammad] Qasim disappeared after being arrested by American [Afghanistan] forces … More and more bodies were soon found just outside the base … ten Afghan men all of whom disappeared after being arrested by US special forces. Welcome to Truth: Satanic New World Order Illuminati Conspiracy, Youtube
On December 1st 2002 Dilawar, young Afghan taxi driver, took three passengers for a ride. He never returned home. Taxi to the Dark Side, BBC 2007
Five days after his arrival [Bagram] he was dead. ibid.
‘We were also told they are nothing but dogs. Then all of a sudden you start looking at these people as less than human, and you start doing things to them you would never dreamt of, and that’s when it got scary.’ ibid. Sgt Ken Davis, Abu Ghraib
Wood maintained that the Bagram model had tacit approval from superiors. ibid.
When the Red Cross toured Bagram the sleep deprivation chart was erased and the prisoners were unshackled. ibid.
She later testified his legs had been pulpified. ibid.
A week after September 11th vice-president Dick Cheney appeared on Meet the Press to describe how interrogation policies were about to change. ibid.
My name is Malalai Joya from the Farah province … I wish to criticize my compatriots in this room. Why would you allow criminals to be present at this Loya Jirga? War lords responsible for our country’s situation … They should be prosecuted. Enemies of Happiness, Malalai in parliament, 2006
Guards, throw her out! ibid. head of parliament
It is the first time women can vote in a general election … She has survived four assassination attempts. ibid. radio news
The [other] candidates are out buying votes. ibid. supporter
You must disarm my men so I can run my campaign in peace. ibid. election candidate
Former war lords and their supporters won the majority of the seats. 28 percent of the 249 seats went to female candidates. Among them is Malalai Joya. ibid.
In May 2007 the men of Second Platoon, Battle Company, began at 15 month deployment in the Korengal valley of eastern Afghanistan. Restrepo: Outpost Afghanistan, 2010
Two months after the death of Doc Restrepo, Second Platoon pushed deeper into the valley and established a new outpost. They named it Restrepo after their dead friend. ibid.
‘It takes a little bit out of you every time you see one of your boys get hurt or you lose one of them; it’s really like a big family.’ ibid. soldier
Kabul, Afghanistan … a city of 3 million … This is a story about the seen and the unseen and things hidden in plain sight … I’d been working as a war reporter for more than a decade. Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, 2013
We were told that the battle for hearts and minds was being won. ibid.
‘This is the third raid in my district. 13 or 14 people have been killed in all. They were innocent people.’ ibid. local rozzer
‘We would rather die than sit back and do nothing.’ ibid. Afghani
‘The Americans used knives to dig the bullets out of their bodies.’ ibid.
Congress wasn’t going to investigate. ibid.
In the last three months there have been 1,700 night raids in Afghanistan … but not a single name. ibid.
I’d worked in Baghdad for years and had written countless stories there. Many from the front lines of the war … But I’d never heard of JSOC. I’d missed the most important story. In Iraq the US had fundamentally changed the way it fought war. The real story – JSOC – was hidden in the shadows, out of sight. ibid.
JSOC could now hit at will in countries beyond JSOC and Afghanistan. ibid.
Kabul: it’s one of the main operating grounds of these private companies throughout the world. Private Armies aka Inside Blackwater: Iraq’s Most Controversial Private Military Contractor, 2007
I think we’re on the wrong track. And I think unless we rethink this very very carefully we could raise the stakes, invest America’s reputation in a greater way as well as our treasure and wind up pursuing a policy that is frankly unpursueable, unachievable. Rethink Afghanistan, John Kerry, Brave New Films 2009
The mere presence of foreign soldiers fighting a war in Afghanistan is probably the single most important factor in the resurgence of the Taliban. ibid. Carnagie online
It now costs about $775,000 a year to put a soldier or a marine into the way in either Iraq or Afghanistan. ibid. Barbara Starr
Nearly $17 billion for the US war in Afghanistan. ibid. critic
Women’s rights and even women themselves are under increasing attack. ibid.
Taliban videos of roadside bomb attacks on coalition vehicles in Afghanistan broadcast on an Al-Qaeda network. Exposure s1e4: The World’s Deadliest Arms Race, ITV 2011
This month the war is ten years old; the Taliban have laid over 37,000 IEDs [Improvised Explosive Device] which have killed over 1,100 Coalition troops including 195 British and 718 American soldiers. ibid.
The Taliban’s IEDs had changed the entire character of the war. ibid.
The United States government has responded with a massive programme of IED counter-measures: the cost – at least $60 billion so far and rising. ibid.
Who’s winning this deadly arms race? ibid.