Afghanistan story
Recently, the second anniversary of The Fall of Kabul passed, uncelebrated, much like The Fall of Saigon. I wouldn't even have mentioned it, except because a friend came to me with this story that I thought I would share. This happened last week in Britain:
Early afternoon Uber ride from a small village in the suburbs of Leicester to Birmingham airport. The driver is called Habibullah. He's Afghani. He came to the UK 16 years back, with his parents & siblings; he has since married & now has kids; fairly happy family.
Habibullah says he lived in London for nine years, but had to move: Family men—he & his fellow Afghani are—cannot afford to live in London; property is too expensive, you cannot find a place big enough for a family. So he moved to Leicester. He says, Afghani are the third largest community there, after Gujarati Indians & Pakistani. (According to the 2021 Census, 60% of Leceisterians do not descend from ancient Britain; 40% are foreign born. Muslims now outnumber the elite persuasion, atheism, & will soon outnumber Christians, too).
Habibullah’s father was a fighter pilot in Kabul, he fought the Russians back in the 80s. The Soviets failed to learn from the times of the Great Game, the Russian-British imperial rivalry. Europeans have been unhappy in Afghanistan ever since the British were slaughtered on their retreat from Kabul in 1842. Soviets, too, tempted fate, & after killing many Afghans, were eventually forced to abandon the country, given American support for the mujahedeen. Habibullah’s father retired, emigrated to the UK, put the war behind. But his brother, Habibullah’s uncle, does honor the family tradition. He, too, is a fighter pilot, still in Afghanistan, despite 20 years of American war. Habibullah says that getting out of there, even if one has the money, is very difficult. That’s why only Habibullah’s immediate family managed to emigrate; between the Taliban & the UK gov’t, they did not manage to squeeze the extended family out, to join the thriving Afghani community of Leicester, East Midlands.
Habibullah’s fighter pilot uncle, still in active service, had stories to tell his family about the Taliban take over of Kabul & the escape of the Afghani president Ghani to the lands of the neighboring Tajikistan, the closest foreign soil from Kabul that is not in Pakistan. Habibullah’s uncle was called on base at five in the morning on August 15, 2021. He entered the base, but the Americans would not allow the fighter jets to fly: There is no need, the Taliban will not enter the city, there will be an understanding, there is no danger. Two helicopters went to the presidential palace in Kabul, just in case: The president needs to be safe. The helicopter pilots reported back to base that the Taliban forces were actually less than two miles away from the presidential palace. No actual danger, no need to evacuate the president, the Americans answer. So the helicopters did not get the green light to take off and evacuate the Afghani president until the last moment, when the Taliban were not only at the gates, but taking over. The president's personal notebook was still on his desk when the Taliban entered his palace, says Habibullah. There was neither time nor space enough to bundle up all the money in the choppers, adds Habibullah. The president left with barely his life, the Americans did not allow him to land in the airport & did not protect him, the airport, nor the Afghan people in Kabul. The Americans must have had an understanding with the Taliban, Habibullah says, they surrendered the city to them. The airport had fighter pilots, they had the army there, but they were not allowed to deploy, not allowed to fight. The president preferred to depart than see his country descend into civil war again. Too much dying, too much suffering already after 20 years of American war. Enough! Habibullah thinks Ghani did the noble thing in allowing peace. So he went to the lands of the Tajiks, who gave him 24 hours to draw a breath, make a plan, & depart.
Now, Habibullah says the Taliban made Afghanistan safe, you can go anywhere, there is no harassment, no crime. But he disagrees with the Taliban excluding women from education. His own mother is educated, Habibullah says, & it's good for the country to not exclude half the people; they would help the country prosper. He thinks the Afghani people will not stand for it for long, too much changed in the 20 years of the war. Americans did bring the schools for girls, elections, Western ideas, some of these are good things… Habibullah laments the state of the country, young people, especially the educated class, trying to flee, especially if they have the money. The journey is hard & perilous, the Taliban do not allow departures & no one else really wants the Afghani. So money must change hands, the passage out is through Iran, where authorities close there eyes halfway & allow it. Thus, Afghanistan loses all the economic potential these young, educated people hold. Habibullah adds: Afghanistan is a rich country, actually! Oil, gas, mineral deposits worth billions in the renewable energy-Western world, the country has it all! But the locals don't have the money or the knowledge to exploit them, so the Chinese just got concessions to do so. (I should add, the Indians got a good concession, too.) Not the Western powers, though, despite occupying the country for the last 20 years.