My Message To Australian Veterans: The Taliban Haven’t Won Yet And Your Work Wasn’t For Nothing

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is tough to watch, but does it mean the war was for nothing?

I’ve seen a lot of commentary recently from a wide spectrum of commentators – both qualified and, in my opinion, less than – discussing this very question. And I thought twice about throwing my own hat in the ring. Yet, here I am.

I have over twenty years of experience in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the army has informed the bulk of the corporate leadership and resiliency work I’ve been involved in since. I’ve trained for most of my adult life in the ADF, with my first deployment to Somali in 1993 and 15 years spent in the Special Forces. I’ve achieved operational experience as a soldier across multiple tours, including two to East Timor in 2001 and 2006, and two to Afghanistan in 2008 and 2010. My roles in the country included supporting the Afghan National Army and Police Force to secure the free democratic elections and mentoring the reconstruction task force before they left Australia.

In short, my thoughts, views and advice on the subject of the Afghan war have been tested in the laboratory that is combat. And there are three things that my own first-hand research has uncovered and that need to be remembered before we label this 20-year mission as obsolete:

1.????We were there to fight Islamic extremism?– not to nation-build.

?It’s unbelievable to think that there are soldiers in the army now who weren’t even alive September 11, 2001. I, like most people, remember exactly where I was when the planes hit the twin towers. I was in Timor, across the road from the huge Muslim army that was Indonesia. A few years prior, it had been the American political scientist, Samuel Huntington, who wrote the ‘Clash of Civilizations’, predicting that the next war would not be one between nation states but between civilizations. So, we were concerned.

?The US responded swiftly, with the green berets and northern alliance quickly and systematically ousting the Taliban from the capital. Why? Because the Taliban were providing a safe haven for AI-Qaeda to plan and execute their operations.

?While history doesn’t tell us if we did the wrong or right thing by invading Afghanistan, it’s important we understand the global climate of the time. It was a world doused in fear?– we didn’t know whether we would soon be fighting Islamic extremism in our own capital cities of Paris, Washington and Canberra. So, instead, we went to the heartland in what became a sort of Special Forces Olympics.

We went there to fight Islamic extremism. We went there to stop that area from being used by a real evil and threat – and that we did. And that mission morphed into nation-building.

?Yes, I believe we made mistakes. We tried to create an Afghanistan that was an image of ourselves; we tried to push western constructs of battalions and regiments and police forces onto an ancient and nomadic people. Perhaps what we should have been doing instead was creating moderate warlords and chieftains along tribal lines.

?Either way, when measuring the war’s impact, we need to keep in mind the global environment of the time, our original mission and what we managed to achieve.

2.????The current Taliban army is different from the Taliban army 20 years ago.

?The first time I experienced the Taliban army was during my first tour of Afghanistan in 2008. I remember two men we captured by force one night were 6ft and 100kg, with jet black hair and their dark eyes outlined in mascara to make them seem more evil, fresh from the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I wouldn’t have beaten them in a one-on-one fight – they were evil personified.

Two years later, the landscape had changed. Those formidable Taliban soldiers were gone?– either killed in battle or they had fled. Instead, we were fighting farm boys and old men. And that’s the thing about fighting a generational war – if you’re fighting 30-year-olds when you arrive, it means that 20 years on you’re fighting an entirely different group of people.

There were times we actually stopped fighting because we realised it was a low scale insurgency on the battlefield and not the diabolical army that we were so afraid of.

So, despite the horrific images seen recently at the Kabul airport, not everything is as it seems. Many of the high-level Taliban fighters are gone, and the soldiers that are left are armed with captured American equipment – old generational gear that isn’t maintainable without an army’s logistics and training behind them.

A lot of the Taliban content you see is bluff and bravado. Their weapons and personnel are an Achille’s heel and they don’t even know it yet.

?3.????We planted an idea that lives on.

In 2010, I was part of the Yankee Platoon that got caught in a valley dust storm. We were meant to be there for 48 hours and ended up staying for the best part of five days. We were on foot, with no air support and tackling an enemy that was the same size as us. And despite being some of the best trained and most well equipped soldiers on the planet, the Taliban had us on the ropes.???

Fast forward to 2021, and while the enemy may not be the same, neither is the National Afghan Army’s capabilities the same as our own.

When the US left (in the middle of the fighting season and on the eve of the September 11 anniversary, might I add), the National Afghan Army dismantled. Their generals and politicians fled. Its soldiers hadn’t been paid and were running short on ammo?– all issues that the Taliban knew and were exploiting. The Afghan National Army simply don’t have the comprehensive training or capability – at least for now – to tackle an enemy that had even our measure at certain times during the fight.

You can’t necessarily blame the Afghan army for running?– they were the underdog and they were abandoned by those people who were meant to lead them.

But, in the end, you don’t beat the Taliban with guns, bombs and bullets. You beat an insurgency with an idea. That army and those people have had a taste of freedom, and that experience we planted lives on, simmering beneath the surface and ready to inspire an uprising.

So, what’s my point?

Anyone that knows me personally, knows that not much tends to bother me. But that week of the Taliban takeover – with those images of people hanging from planes and armed Taliban soldiers taking over the capital – was tough to watch. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t struggle.

But while I sympathise with the Afghan people and mourn the temporary loss of that nation, and I empathise with the Australian veterans who believe their years of hard work have been undone, I think it’s important to look at the situation objectively.

As soldiers, we went there with a job to do. Some of our experiences in Afghanistan were terrifying; some were exhilarating and amazing. But we all chose to be there and those who died, died doing what they loved. Some of the things we achieved were quite extraordinary. We saved lives and we made lives better, even if it was only one person. We did what we were asked to do by our government, we looked after our mates, and we fought hard.

We did all we could do but the enemy gets a vote and we can’t control world events; you need to find a way to triage the stimulus that is coming in. Don’t let your time in the army and in Afghanistan define you for the rest of your life – don’t be a victim.

As a veteran, be a voice of positivity.

Because, as I’ve said many times over the last few weeks, our work was not for nothing and this isn’t over just yet.