The west has betrayed Afghanistan by leaving civilians at the mercy of the Taliban

Editorial: The people of Afghanistan are being abandoned to a group whose methods are medieval, and whose ideology, a disfigurement of the peaceful meaning of Islam, is cruel beyond belief

Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, on 9 August (AP)

When British forces went into Afghanistan almost two decades ago, the prime minister at the time, Tony Blair, declared that “the cause is just”. Can the same now be said in regard to the British withdrawal?

It is difficult to find any scraps of justice or honour in this panicky retreat, or even competence: it is a rout, in fact if not in name, of the west’s own making. Before the end of the summer, some of those Afghans now fleeing towards Iran or Pakistan will make it as far as the English Channel in their quest for safety.

When – if – they reach the coast of Kent in some pathetic dinghy, some will be able to tell Border Force officials, quite truthfully, that they have worked with the British Council or the army or aid agencies at some point since 2001. Others will have had more informal, glancing contacts with western and British forces, but still sufficient to incur a death sentence without trial under the Taliban. Others simply trusted the west to keep to its word – to drive the Taliban out and to keep them safe. The west has betrayed them.

Soon, as with the conflicts in Syria, Somalia and so many other places, it will mean another refugee crisis, and the human consequences will end up in Britain. Will they be labelled “illegal migrants” or “benefit scroungers”, these people whose only crime was to take Britain at its word? They are classic asylum seekers, running for their lives, their welfare in jeopardy as a direct result of actions taken and promises broken in Washington, London and elsewhere. Will Britain pay its debts of honour?

This debacle has been a long time coming. Weakness has been signalled increasingly clearly since the Obama administration began to tire of the struggle and the mixed effects of the troop “surges”. President Trump, the self-styled “great deal” maker, concluded a hopeless white flag of a treaty with the Taliban that virtually guaranteed them victory.

President Biden compounded these failures with the incomprehensible blunder of publicly declaring the date of the US withdrawal – the anniversary of 9/11 – as if this were an appropriate date to celebrate America’s final triumph over the enablers of the attacks on the twin towers and other atrocities. How foolish.

The Taliban had all the incentive and time they needed to plan their final comeback and assault. The west pretended, as did the Taliban, that the peace talks in Doha, Qatar, would result in some sort of amicable power-sharing arrangement.

No doubt President Biden judged that the talks would drag on, and that the government of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani would at least make it to 9/11 and a bit beyond, if only to save America’s face. Now it looks as though the Americans are begging the Taliban not to behead their diplomats.

It is reminiscent of the last days of Saigon, and the humiliation of America and the west will be complete within days. The 9/11 anniversary won’t be the date of the American withdrawal after all. After 20 years, and the loss of countless lives and treasure, the Americans and their allies couldn’t even pick the date of their own retreat.

The people of Afghanistan are being abandoned to a group whose methods are medieval, and whose ideology, a disfigurement of the peaceful meaning of Islam, is cruel beyond belief. They are murderers, set on persecuting their own people once again. There have already been massacres, of civilians and troops alike, and there will be many more.

Some of the Afghans who worked closely with British forces as translators and at the embassy are being offered asylum, but many will be left behind, including some, it is claimed, who have been involved with the British Council. In reality, after such a long engagement, there will be many thousands of Afghans who have had some contact with western forces, and many hundreds of thousands more enrolled in the Afghan armed forces and public administration. They trusted us.

In a few weeks many will be dead, either summarily executed or tortured to death. Others will be trying to make their way towards Europe. They have little choice. Human rights and the laws of war are not recognised by the Taliban. We know that, and yet we try to fool ourselves and the Afghans that the government in Kabul can survive. These people are so obviously refugees that it seems senseless to leave them in their country awaiting certain death. To do so would amount to a war crime by the west, or at least a denial of the right to life.

The script for Afghanistan now is all too predictable, because we know how the Taliban operated in the 1990s and 2000s. There will be show-trials and beheadings in the football stadiums. There will be massacres. Women will be beaten. Girls will be denied a proper education.

Terror groups will form and re-form, and use the country as a base. They will plot their attacks and train their mujahideen for fresh atrocities on the west, on Israel, on governments in the region hostile to them. A new Osama Bin Laden will emerge. The narcotics trade will fund the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will renew their previously indulgent attitude towards the Taliban. The west, having lost the 20-year war, will be reluctant to return to restore order.

The defeat could scarcely be more complete. It has provoked a schism in Nato, because America’s allies could not understand its decision, yet couldn’t continue without US diplomatic and military heft. There will be more refugees, more terror, more abuse of humanity. None of this was inevitable.

Afghanistan was a quagmire, made worse when the second quagmire, Iraq, was added to the burden in 2003. Yet Afghanistan had ceased to be an unwinnable war by the time Joe Biden made his foolish pledge to get out unconditionally on some arbitrary date chosen for reasons of political presentation.

A small force of a few thousand western forces provided the vital air and technical support that meant the Afghan army and police, at last, could tie the Taliban down. It was a fine example of military leverage. The continuing cost in casualties and more was low, sustainable, and could, contrary to what the president claimed, have continued indefinitely. When it was pulled, the whole growing structure of governance fell with it.

The invasion of 2001 was sanctioned by the UN and widely supported in the Muslim world. Unlike the war in Iraq, there was no question of its legality or its justness. In retrospect, it should have been done differently, more as a police action against Bin Laden and al-Qaeda than as an invasion and occupation. Terrible mistakes were made.

Yet now, when Afghanistan was at last stabilising and enjoying a modicum of freedom and democracy, it has been betrayed. The west should have stayed. The cause, at the end, was just.