VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED
Includes graphic and violent content that some viewers may find disturbing
[ Biden ]Look, we're in that war for 20 years.
[ Hayatullah ]We know they lost the war. They achieved some goals and were then defeated.
[ Biden ]The United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan.
[ Hokam ]They left Afghanistan with conflicts and problems.
[ Hokam ]They could have ended the war as soon as they achieved their objectives.
[ Biden ]I concluded that it is time to end America's
longest war, it is time for American troops to come home…
before we mark the 20th Anniversary of that heinous attack on September 11
AFGHANISTAN AFTER THE US
CHAPTER 1 ENDURING FREEDOM
[ VO ]September 11, 2001 - a day that reshaped the modern world.
[ VO ]Having never known war on its own soil, America was struck at its heart.
11 SEPTEMBER 2001
[ John Kiriakou ]I remember watching the World Trade Centre burn on a TV at the CIA,
[ JOHN CHRIS KIRIAKOU, FORMER US INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ] and I was standing there like this, just looking at it.
[ John ] And a colleague of mine was standing next to me, and he said, my god, did they
have any idea what they've done? We're going to kill everybody now. Everybody!
11 SEPTEMBER 2001
[ VO ]The Live apocalyptic TV images provoked the US into declaring its "war on terror".
[ John ]I think almost no Americans regret invading
Afghanistan, because we had to destroy Al-Qaida. We had to!
OCTOBER 2001
[ VO ]On October 7, 2001, the US and its NATO allies launched ‘operation Enduring Freedom’. The objective
was to kill the terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden, and the Afghan Taliban, who gave him safe haven.
[ Peter ]In the beginning, it wasn’t exactly a major success for the United States.
[ PETER KUZNICK, HISTORY PROFESSOR, US ] Because when we went in there, it was such alive
footprint under Donald Rumsfeld, that the Al-Qaeda and the leaders of the Taliban escaped.
[ VO ]It was not until 2011, 10 years after the campaign began – that American forces finally tracked down and
killed Osama bin Laden. By then, the world’s most wanted terrorist had found refuge in neighboring Pakistan.
[ Peter ]So, the United States is overextended in that part of the world
it has no understanding of and is causing great, great damage everywhere.
[ Hamid Karzai ]The came in the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
[ Hamid ]And we began to look forward with tremendous hopes towards a better future.
[ HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT, 2004 – 2014 ] And then they began to bomb Afghan villages and homes, and
get our people hurt and killed, and homes destroyed.
[ Hamid ]That is where the trend towards the negative began.
[ VO ]Though the bombs were aimed at the Taliban, many schools,
homes, and hospitals in the area also suffered extensive damage.
[ VO ]The air raids caused hundreds of casualties, a great many women and children among them.
[ Rabia ]We woke up in the morning, with fighting on the street till evening
[ Rabia ]An unexploded missile was left there
[ Rabia ]The next morning, when we went to school,
Jalil grabbed the rocket and it exploded in his hands
[ RABIA, RESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN ]He died and 4 more were killed, and 5 injured
[ VO ]Despite achieving the declared objectives, the western coalition continued to pursue the
Taliban, seeming to ignore the resulting heavy collateral damage suffered by civilians.
[ Brandon ]American flag.
[ Brandon ]Squadron patch.
[ Brandon ] Name tape.
[ Brandon ]Air Force.
BRANDON BRYANT, AFGHAN WAR VETERAN
[ Brandon ]I joined the US Military at the age of 19, in 2005.
[ Brandon ]When I joined, I believed in protecting people, and standing up to bullies.
[ Brandon ]And I kind of felt it was my duty to do so.
[ Brandon ]I wanted to be a hero, I wanted to help people and do good and do something constructive and
productive. And I was sold on the idea that joining the military to fight for my Country was that thing.
[ VO ]Brandon Bryant is a former UAV pilot. He flew drones and opened fire on
targets in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Brandon himself was based in Nevada
[ Brandon ]My first shot, happened in Eastern Afghanistan, killed three
individuals, I watched the man bleed out from the leg that he lost.
[ Brandon ]Those happened on a regular basis. And not far away from 300 bombs dropped a year from drones. In general.
[ Brandon ]It's really just a mess. It's point click and kill! It's so easy that
anyone can do it. That's treated like a game, you know, in a perverted way.
[ Brandon ]I believe that it's almost thrilling for certain people, because it's…
it deals with real human lives. There's, know… there's a higher stake.
[ Brandon ]And I think that somebody general of the military officers that took
part in these kinds of activities, had that sort of thrill for the action.
[ Brandon ]I was the guy who would follow orders. I got really injured in the
military and thought that this was going to be my deathbed confessional.
[ Brandon ]One particular instance where I was part of a crew that killed a child.
[ Brandon ]It's like a knife. Every time I talked about, it's like, I feel this dagger
in my chest. And I don't know how to reconcile that. But my original intent
was just to free this burden from my soul. Die in peace, if you will.
[ Brandon ]Children were written off as dogs. Innocent people were written off as collateral damage. Just tally marks
in a book. Equations for a higher promotion, you
know, those types of things. And it really was horrible.
[ Brandon ]Because I witnessed innocent people being killed and
children being killed, it makes me angry. And makes me infuriated.
[ Brandon ]All Right. So, this is my very first ever
achieved medal given to me by the United
States Air Force. I had 36 of these
then I left military. It this was my first one.
[ Brandon ]This box is what is left over
of my military memorabilia.
[ Brandon ]I don't know how the United States will ever get this Vietnam off of our
consciousness, it will be very, very long time and almost impossible to do.
[ Brandon ]I just want to say that it's a colossal failure. Probably one of the most embarrassing events in military history.
[ Vladimir ]Amazingly, the Americans, fighting for democracy everywhere,
[ VLADIMIR SOTNIKOV, SENIOR FELLOW, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’ INSTITUTE OF
ORIENTAL STUDIES ] behaved undemocratically in Afghanistan They repeated the
mistakes they made in Vietnam, where they played with body parts
[ Vladimir ]In Afghanistan, they urinated on the corpses of people they claimed were terrorists
[ Vladimir ]Very often it was peaceful Afghans
[ Vladimir ]The similarity between the collateral damage in Vietnam and Afghanistan is striking
[ Mawlawie ]Afghans, like other peoples of the world,
believed the Americans would come and our country would flourish
[ MAWLAWIE JELALUDDIN SHINWARI, FORMER HEAD OF TALIBAN COURT ]However, as soon as they arrived in
Afghanistan, the people immediately understood the real essence of it and the cost of American democracy.
[ HAJI KHAN WAZI, RESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN ]The Americans came and bombed mosques, schools, and wedding parties
[ VO ]There are claims that the entire US military campaign
in Afghanistan was marked by torture, murder, and rape.
[ MAWLAWIE SAYED MOHAMMAD AKBAR AGA, FORMER SENIOR TALIBAN COMMANDER ]They
created conditions, whereby one mujahid fought against another. It was chaos!
[ VO ]Operation Enduring Freedom lasted 13 years and officially ended in December 2014 to be
replaced by a new NATO mission dubbed, Resolute Support. In practical terms, it meant
America’s military presence would be reduced, while retaining the military bases in
Afghanistan. This revised operation served Barack Obama well as a positive PR exercise.
MAY 2014
[ Obama ]At the beginning of 2015, we will have 9,800 US service members in different parts of the country, together
with our NATO allies and other partners. By the end of
2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half.
[ Obama ]One year later, by the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy
presence in Kabul, with a security assistance component, just as we've done in Iraq.
[ Mawlawie ]There's no doubt the difference between Afghanistan and Iraq, where the US fought,
is great The Afghans are so valiant that even the Russians couldn't defeat us
[ Mawlawie ]The Americans miscalculated, and they couldn't beat us either!
[ VO ]This way, Afghan troops had to bear the brunt of military operations.
[ Peter ]Afghan army? Who was in reality the Afghan army?
[ Peter ]The United States has spent tens of billions of dollars to build up this
army 300,000 people. 90% of the recruits in the Afghan army are illiterate.
[ Peter ]These are kids from backward rural villages, have no belief in the army, no
support of the central government, and are very backward in a lot of ways.
[ VO ]The result was, that within two years of Operation Enduring Freedom coming to an end, Afghan troops had
suffered four times more casualties than the entire NATO coalition had in 13 years of being in the country.
[ Mohammad ] The Americans promised to fight the
Taliban, a recognised terrorist organisation,
which revealed its true bloody face to the
world, and which was just a small group in
the beginning They secretly kept the
Taliban alive, reviving and strengthening it, to
[ MOHAMMAD AMIN MOKHLISZADA, ANTI-TALIBAN RESISTANCE GROUP MEMBER ] ...give them the means
to continue ruling
our people with their dirty political methods.
AUGUST 2021
[ John ]Pakistani trucks crossing Afghanistan on the way to
Iran were being hijacked by Bandits – criminals, gunmen.
[ JOHN CHRIS KIRIAKOU, FORMER US INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ]And so they decided to take Afghan
students, who were studying in madrasas in Pakistan to guard the trucks as they crossed to Iran.
[ John ]And then they came up with the idea that maybe it would be better
to just put the students in villages along the truck routes.
[ John ]The world "Taleb" means "student", the plural is "Taleban".
CHAPTER 2 TALIBAN
[ VO ]The Islamic Taliban Movement emerged in the 1990s as an entirely new military power.
[ John ]These students stood for law and order and they had weapons. And little by little
they took over the villages. And then when they took over the villages, they took over
the regions. And then finally they took over the whole country! That's how it
started. This was an operation launched by the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service.
SEPTEMBER 1996
[ VO ]In September 1996, the Taliban captured Kabul without a fight, established the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan, and imposed Sharia law. They claimed to have created a peaceful and stable Islamic state
free of corruption and lawlessness. But sheltering Osama bin Laden and destroying ancient and sacred
Buddhist monuments helped cast the Taliban in a negative light in the court of world public opinion.
DECEMBER 2001
[ VO ]After foreign troops were deployed in Afghanistan, the Taliban were largely defeated, and the rest went deep
underground. But for 20 years, they continued to wage a bloody war against the foreign military presence.
[ ILYAS DAUDI, AFGHAN WAR VETERAN, 1979-1989 ]The Americans, Canadians, and
British generally didn't participate in major operations. They ventured out for
a few minor engagements, and they still lost troops. The actual power in the
districts, in the centers of the provinces has always been with the Taliban.
AUGUST 2021
[ VO ]Now, in the wake of the US military withdrawal, the Taliban have regained the upper
hand, while seeming to distance themselves from their militant predecessors of the 1990s.
[ VO ]The Taliban now says it’s a multi-ethnic movement that does not,
as it did before, consist solely of Pashtuns. It actively recruits
residents from the Pakistani border regions, which were always a perfect
foothold and training ground for well-disciplined Islamic soldiers.
[ VLADIMIR SOTNIKOV, SENIOR FELLOW, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’ INSTITUTE
OF ORIENTAL STUDIES ] Taliban members from 1996 were terrorists with no long
term plans. The Taliban of 2021 should not be seen as an inherently terrorist
group, but rather a political organisation with a clear plan of action.
[ Hamid ]The Taliban being listed as a terrorist by the United Nations is the consequence of their action, of course.
[ HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT, 2004 – 2014 ]There’s no alternative.
[ Hamid ]Because there’s no alternatives, things went wrong. Things went
wrong, and they began to reemerge, and part of the population went
with them. So, yes, talk to them, there simply is no other alternative.
[ VO ]While some wanted to enter into dialogue, others have taken up arms.
[ Commander1 ]Don't open fire without orders! Taliban are in those hills! Do you understand? Let's march!
AUGUST 2021
[ VO ]These are the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in northern Afghanistan.
This is where the Taliban met the fiercest resistance from the local population.
[ VO ]The Militia, formed of local volunteers, required no
additional motivation. These people were fighting for their land.
[ SAYED NAZIR, COMMANDER, AFGHAN SECURITY FORCES UNIT ] Thank God we don't lack the
strength and resources to wage war, and that we are also brave enough to face our enemy!
[ ZULFIQAR NAZARI, COMMANDER, ANTI-TALIBAN RESISTANCE GROUP ]The intel we received was that 200-300
Taliban were deployed in that area According to that intelligence, they planned to attack us.
[ Zulfiqar ]We pre-empted their offensive and defeated them
[ Zulfiqar ]They had to retreat
[ MOHAMMAD, ANTI-TALIBAN RESISTANCE GROUP MEMBER ]The way I see it, if Charkint and Mazar-i-Sharif are defeated, the entire North
might fall But here, we won't surrender, thank God! We're 100 percent sure.
[ VO ]On August 14, 2021, one week after this video was filmed, Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban.
[ VO ]Jalalabad one of the last key cities still under government
control, apart from Kabul, was captured the following day.
[ Nazir ] This is America's fault, 100%! Initially, the Taliban was a small faction that went to Qatar for
talks The US suggested the Taliban enter Afghanistan to restore peace, to help them take control of
the country The Americans increased the Taliban's status in the public eye, allowing them to gain
ground in the regions So, who created a global force out of a small faction? Foreigners, of course!
[ VO ]24 hours later, The Taliban took over the country and became the true
masters of Afghanistan. Kabul fell and the Afghan government soon followed.
[ Translator ] The way withdrawal was done resulted in increased danger, and violence escalated across the country
[ Translator ] The situation's deteriorating, day to day
[ NAJEEBULLAH ANSARI, FORMER TRANSLATOR FOR GERMAN MILITARY, AFGHANISTAN ]I guess it was in 2013
when I left active duty I quit because the Taliban threatened me I kept getting calls from
unknown numbers People said they were Taliban
supporters, and they didn't want me to work with the foreigners
[ VO ]Najibullah Ansari spent several years working first with American troops and then with German forces.
[ VO ]He has repeatedly requested asylum for himself and his family but all his requests have been denied.
[ Najibullah ]I wrote letters and sent requests to German military officials,
talking about these threats and other problems we faced. The last time,
they said I'd get a reply from Germany. But because the request was
lengthy and submitted late, they said the threat was no longer valid.
[ Najibullah ]The danger was no longer current.
[ VO ]There were literally thousands of Afghan interpreters alone. People who had worked
JULY 2021
with the foreign troops for many years held mass rallies as soon as the US announced
their full withdrawal from the country. Some did manage to leave for the United
States or Europe under special programmes. But most were left to their own devices.
[ Solamain ]My name is Solamain Sakhi Zada.
[ SOLAMAIN SAKHI ZADA, FORMER TRANSLATOR FOR GERMAN MILITARY, AFGHANISTAN ]I worked
as a translator with the German armed forces in Mazar-i-Sharif at Camp Marmal
[ VO ]When Solamain started working with foreigners, he was barely
eighteen. Back in 2008, his job was seen as quite prestigious.
[ Solamain ]That's me, Solamain. This is the battalion commander.
[ Solamain ]The commander of the operational unit in Baghlan. We served
together, doing our duty. We were in the infantry We
walked across almost all districts of Baghlan province.
[ VO ]Everything changed after 2014 when the foreign troops began to withdraw.
[ VO ]Solamain lost his job after staff cuts, and he’s been unemployed ever since
[ Solamain ]Wherever I went, whatever agencies I applied to, they asked about my work experience.
[ Solamain ]I told them I'd been an interpreter for German troops in Afghanistan for 8 years.
[ Solamain ]No one hired me!
[ Solamain ]The thing is, employers didn't want to risk their lives.
[ Solamain ]Although it was mine that was in danger!
[ VO ]And his concerns proved to be quite justified.
[ Solamain ]The Taliban view working with foreigners as a big problem.
[ Solamain ]Plenty learned that the hard way.
[ Solamain ]Obviously, being an interpreter isn't the same as a security guard or janitor. In their opinion,
interpreters were a tool that helped the foreigners accomplish their mission in Afghanistan.
[ Vladimir ]While they're waiting for international recognition, they keep up the pretense that the
Taliban is a movement that just wants to govern Afghanistan and is open to dialogue. So,
as for what the future holds for the interpreters who worked with the Americans, Brits,
Germans, French... what it holds for women… This begs the question, what happens next?
[ John ]In the year before the September 11th attacks, when the Taliban were
in power, Afghanistan produced literally zero heroin. No heroin.
[ JOHN CHRIS KIRIAKOU, FORMER US INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ]And after the 09.11 attacks
they got to appoint by 2010 where they were producing 93% of the world's heroin. I
know this, because I was the chief investigator on the senate foreign relations
committee staff at the time, and I went to Afghanistan in 2009 to study the problem.
2015
[ VO ]This part of Kabul is called Pole Sokhta which means “burnt money”. A favorite
haunt for drug addicts’. It’s easy to buy hashish, opium or heroin here.
[ VO ]Neither during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan nor after
it, under the Taliban, could this possibly have been imaginable.
[ VO ]In 2000, in attempt to boost the Taliban’s image, its leader, mullah
Mohammed Omar banned opium poppy cultivation anywhere on Afghanistan’s soil.
CHAPTER 3 DRUG TRAFFICKING
[ Ilya ]In 2001, opium production hit a low of just 180 tones.
[ Ilya ]This year 6,500 will be harvested, the difference is clear.
FILMED IN 2015
[ ILYA LEVITAN, RUSSIAN DRUG CONTROL SERVICE’S OFFICIAL
REPRESENTATIVE IN AFGHANISTAN, 2010-2015 ]Since heroin and opium don't
reach America in huge quantities and don't pose a public threat,
they're not ready to spend taxpayer money to fight drug crops
This video was filmed in 2015 and numbers have only grown since then.
Afghanistan is now the undisputed world leader in opium production.
Poppy field acreage has now expanded to rival the size of some European countries. Afghanistan
confidently holds first place in heroin production, and that lead is growing every year.
[ Peter ]By 2009, the corruption index in Afghanistan is still the lowest or the next to lowest.
[ PETER KUZNICK, HISTORY PROFESSOR, US ]How did the Afghan economy survived? Through opium, through the drug
trade. Their attempts to change that, they never succeeded. And the people in charge were very, very corrupt.
[ VO ]Heroin kills and feeds at the same time. Today one Afghani in ten is directly
linked to opium production. In a country ravaged by war, trading in the opium poppy and
its derivatives has pretty much become the only source of income for Afghanistan’s
rural poor– while giving international drug rings another way to generate huge profits.
[ John ]Well, I went to Lashgargah, which is the capital of Helmand
province, and that's where most of the heroin poppy is grown.
[ John ]And I very naively went to meet with a poppy farmer, and I
said to him, “Instead of poppy why don't you grow things with two
growing seasons? Onions, tomatoes, pomegranates?” And he said
with frustration: “You know, the Americans told me in 2001 that
if I told them where the Arabs were, I could grow all the poppy
[ John ]I wanted. And now you come and tell me I can't grow poppy?”
[ John ]So I came back and I told John Kerry, who was my boss at the time, "This is a real
problem! We have to do something about heroin poppy cultivation!" And he said, "Why?"
[ John ]I said, “Because it's 93% of the world's poppy! Heroin poppy!” And he said, “Right! And it all goes
to Iran and Russia, and we don't care if they're heroin addicts.” And so, we never did anything.
[ VO ]Opiates produced in Afghanistan are shipped all over the world through well-established smuggling channels.
AFGHANISTAN CENTRAL ASIA SOUTH ASIA MIDDLE EAST AND PERSIAN GULF COUNTRIES EUROPE AFRICA
[ VO ]Around the globe, Afghanistan’s opium industry kills hundreds of thousands of people every year.
[ VO ]The explosive growth in opium production is one of the
main by-products of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan
and arguably the only America’s only real legacy after leaving the
country. No substantial infrastructure has been built in 20 years.
[ VO ]Scorched earth is all that the Afghanis have left.
[ Ilyas ] While they were in Afghanistan,
[ ILYAS DAUDI, AFGHAN WAR VETERAN, 1979-1989 ] ...the
US blocked a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan
and India, to China Hydrocarbons, gas, particularly from
Turkmenistan, was supposed to go to Kandahar, then to Quetta,
Pakistan, and finally move to China The presence of American troops all these years prevented this pipeline from being
built This partially paralysed the development of production
and lowered the volumes they could have reached there
[ VO ]The only real way to judge the 20 years of American presence in
Afghanistan is by looking at the abandoned military bases. No industrial or
social facilities were ever built in those years. In fact, throughout
this time, Afghanistan continued to benefit from the Soviet legacy.
[ Mawlawie ]When the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, they left everything behind:
the buildings, tanks, weapons
1989
[ Mawlawie ]Everything the Russians had, they left behind
[ MAWLAWIE SAYED MOHAMMAD AKBAR AGA, FORMER SENIOR TALIBAN COMMANDER ]But,
as the Americans leave, they're destroying all they can't take with
them Secondly, as you can see, we have no electricity We must buy
electricity from our neighbors because the Americans built no power plants
1989
[ Mawlawie ]They did nothing for the people!
[ Mawlawie ]The USSR built a lot for us, and these structures are still standing
[ Mawlawie ]The Americans built nothing!
[ VO ]Indeed, Afghanistan still benefits from infrastructure that the Soviet Union built.
[ VO ]With Moscow's support, 150 major facilities were constructed: thousands of kilometers
of mountain road, the Salang Tunnel connecting the northern and central regions,
as well as dams, oil depots, factories, hospitals and schools. Not to mention an
irrigation system installed by Soviet specialists that helped to defeat hunger.
[ Vladimir ]The USSR provided economic aid, restored factories,
[ VLADIMIR SOTNIKOV, SENIOR FELLOW, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’
INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL STUDIES ]and revived the nation's destroyed economy.
[ Vladimir ]Many of these facilities remain operational today. The US
also seems to have spent huge sums of money, primarily
on building an 'Afghan National Army', which, as
we've seen, gave up and fled at the Taliban's first onslaught.
[ Ghulam ]This beautiful painting is called Maipar It's of the Naglu hydroelectric station built
by the Soviet Union A very large hydroelectric power station, a very beautiful place
[ Ghulam ]Very beautiful
[ VO ]Ghulam studies a map of his homeland woven into an oriental carpet. He knows
every province, city, and village, or kishlak, like the back of his hand.
[ Ghulam ]It's a huge tragedy.
[ VO ]After the Najibullah government was overthrown in the spring of 1992, Ghulam Mohammad
Jalal was one of many high-ranking Afghani officials who were forced to flee the country.
[ Ghulam ]After the Mujahideen came to power, I was wounded in an attempt on my life.
GHULAM MOHAMMAD JALAL, PRESIDENT, CENTRE FOR THE AFGHAN DIASPORA IN RUSSIA
[ Ghulam ]There was no electricity, the hospitals weren't functioning, the embassies
were closed, nothing worked, so I left. If I hadn't moved, not only my fate,
but the fate of my entire family… Only God knows what would have happened.
[ Ghulam ]Russia is a second home for me, but it's their first home
because they grew up here.
[ Ghulam ]We even argue about it sometimes.
[ Son ]We adapted a long time ago.
[ Ghulam ]My daughter usually speaks Pashto, but if she needs to
make something clear, she immediately switches to Russian.
[ Son ]I even think in Russian To say something in Pashto, I have to translate it from Russian first.
[ VO ]For several decades, their homeland has known no peace. And
now more people than ever are trying to flee the country.
[ Ghulam ]There will be lots and lots of refugees, mostly women and intellectuals
[ Ghulam ]It will be very hard for them to live by such strict rules, so they'll be forced to leave
[ Peter ]When the Soviets invaded in 1979 — we get into some of that history, because
it’s very important — but the U.S. began working with the Mujahideen.
[ Peter ]And the reason why the Mujahideen hated the pro-Soviet government in
Kabul was because that pro-Soviet government was allowing women to get
educated, was supporting land reform, and supporting industrialisation and
modernisation. There was reactionary backward Islamic extremist elements
of the Mujahideen were the ones the United States put in and overthrew
the more progressive pro-Soviet government that was giving women rights.
[ Peter ]And so, for the United States now to be bemoaning the fate of women is
little bit of hypocrisy there, given U.S. history of U.S. involvement.
[ Hamid ]My own daughters are going to school in Afghanistan. They go to school right
now. They go out to shop, they go out to play, they go to school. Because we are
attacked by those extremist elements, terrorists who don’t want us educated,
[ HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT, 2004 – 2014 ]we must add to our
resolve to send our children to school, our girls to school.
[ Hamid ]Never give up on that! I wouldn’t. I’m sure millions of Afghans wouldn’t give up on that!
CHAPTER 4 THE PRESENT
[ VO ]This yoga center in Kabul was established in 2017.
[ VO ]Dozens of Afghan women attended here every day.
[ Fahrie ]Four years ago I opened a yoga studio for women.
[ VO ]Well educated, with strong leadership skills, business prowess – there are very few people like her in
Afghanistan. Every day she makes her way to the studio, where she is greeted by waiting yoga enthusiasts
AUGUST 2021
[ Fahrie ]When I'm walking down the street, of course, I'm afraid. In this country, you feel fear in any situation, even at home.
[ VO ]But behind these walls, there’s a very different Afghanistan.
[ Fahrie ]I was one of the first to make yoga classes accessible to the general public.
[ Fahrie ]I began very carefully
[ Fahrie ]One of the problems we faced was related
to the clothes women wore during practice.
[ Fahrie ]We even came up with a special outfit for women to wear while doing yoga,
so as not to offend anyone
[ VO ]And despite all the precautions, she started receiving phone threats.
[ Fahrie ]When I started getting threats, it was all over social networks for
two weeks. The media also published news about the threats against me
[ Fahrie ]This proves, once again, that the Taliban is here. It's crept under the skin of our society.
[ VO ]But now, with the Taliban back in power, we can’t reveal her face.
[ VO ]White flags with the black shahada now fly over every state building,
not just in Kabul but in every major city and at every checkpoint.
[ VO ]The Taliban brought their convictions and their symbols. New rules are now in place.
[ VO ]Women’s faces on advertising posters in Kabul have been-painted
over, beauty salons boarded-up. Women are obliged to wear the
burqa. As a result, both demand and price have increased ten
times since the Taliban arrived. And this is just the beginning.
[ Peter ]They believe in the strictest interpretation of Sharia law.
[ PETER KUZNICK, HISTORY PROFESSOR, US ]They were being
amputating people’s arms, they were hanging people, they were
certainly almost imprisoning women, when they were in control.
[ Peter ]It was a very, very backward society. Will it be that bad now?
[ Peter ]We don’t know for sure. But they… certainly, the plight of
women in Afghanistan, is not something that I’m very optimistic about.
[ VO ]In the 1990s, the Taliban imposed of the harshest restrictions on women.
[ VO ]Female Afghanistanis could be stoned to death for failing to wear
a paranja in public. They were forbidden to leave their homes without
a male relative. Women were denied both an education and careers,
and even medical care. All these rules were enforced by the religious
police. Now the Taliban claim to have changed and will let women be
educated, have a job, serve and even hold government positions. But
these claims lack credibility and are often contradicted by the facts.
[ HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT, 2004 – 2014 ]Yes, we are, in this moment, in
a very difficult spot. There is immense violence in Afghanistan. There is
immense hunger in our country. There’s a vacuum felt in Afghanistan, there was
the presence of the international community and Americans for 20 years, NATO.
[ VO ]Boys and girls must now attend separate classes. Women are
banned from all sports without full face and body covering. While
female soldiers fear for their lives, the Taliban say that
despite Sharia law, Afghan women’s rights will be protected.
[ David ]I don’t rely or put my faith in the Taliban.
[ DAVID SWANSON, JOURNALIST, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLDBEYONDWAR.ORG, US ]I
know the horrific history and the fears that many people in Afghanistan have
of the Taliban. But we have to hope. And it's not clear yet that the Taliban
will be worse than Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, or Israel, or 50 countries that
the United States openly arms and supports, and funds, and drinks. So, if
we're going to get the US government to talk about human rights, that's the
first step. There’s the whole world out there. The first step is to stop
arming the worst human rights abusers on Earth because it's so clear and easy.
[ VO ]More than two million Afghans have fled to other countries as refugees. People started
leaving in large numbers a few years ago when the Americans were still there. They left
because they’d abandoned all hope of seeing peace restored to their homeland. And after the
Taliban, the number of people wanting to flee has increased dramatically. They include not
only women, but journalists, public figures, interpreters, and anyone else who worked with
foreigners and helped to build a brighter future for Afghanistan over the last 20 years.
[ VO ]But well-educated people weren’t the only ones trying to leave, fearing life under the Taliban. Ordinary folk
from provinces had to abandon their homes too. They tried to save their families from the atrocities of war.
[ VO ]The sun sets over a refugee camp on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif. Another
day has passed. Just like every previous day, it’s been a struggle for survival.
[ VO ]Alima describes herself as a spokesperson for the refugee camp.
[ VO ] It houses thirty families, mostly ethnic Uzbeks.
[ Alima ] I came here from Faryab province's Almar District.
[ ALIMA, AFGHAN REFUGEE ]The hostilities went on day and night there. We couldn't stand it
any longer, there was fighting all around. First the Taliban fired, then other forces, our
homes were destroyed. One of my sisters was shot from an airplane, she died a martyr's death.
[ Alima ] A second sister was killed by a tank shell. That's what we endured until we fled here.
[ VO ]Rags blown in the wind. Fabric bleached by the scorching sun. A haphazard array of impromptu huts that sprouted in the middle
of the desert. People who abandoned their homes and blossoming gardens have now lived in these squalid conditions for a year.
[ Nurmammad ]In this heat, our children can't even get a glass of
cold water. We tell them there will be water soon,
but we are deceiving them. We just soak their clothes so they won't feel so hot.
[ NURMAMMAD, AFGHAN REFUGEE ]We cover their heads with wet towels so they won't get heat stroke and die.
[ Nurmammad ]We get them through to the evening and then they go out of the tents into the cool fresh air
[ Nurmammad ]That's how we live.
[ Madrafiq ]We have a lot of problems, there aren't enough food or clothes. With no school, our kids
don't study. The children have been suffering a year now.
[ MADRAFIQ, AFGHAN REFUGEE ]Sometimes, there isn't even stale bread to
eat with water. It's good that the harvest has already ripened, and the
children can satisfy their hunger. Don't even mention meat, we haven't seen any for months.
[ Alima ]That's how we live now. We have about 50 children here who need to study. We
didn't learn to read and write ourselves, but at least let the children get an education.
[ VO ]And here, the refugees worry about their children. Even among those who regard themselves as
illiterate, there’s a strong awareness that a good education is critical for their country’s future.
[ Abdul ]The Afghan people are illiterate.
[ Abdul ]Behind their backs stand foreigners,
[ ABDUL, AFGHAN REFUGEE ]who allegedly support them,
but are really pushing Afghans into fratricidal war. They're only goal is to weaken Afghanistan and the Muslims.
[ VO ]After 20 years in Afghanistan, America has clearly failed to eliminate any of the problems.
[ David ] Those who wanted to make money from a war on Afghanistan made buckets
and buckets of money: the big weapons dealers, the war contractors, the
reconstruction business, the… the… the mercenary contracting firms that do
all the cooking, and cleaning, and work that the troops don't do anymore.
[ David ] They made buckets and buckets of money and the politicians, whose campaigns
are funded with what we call in the rest of the world ‘bribery’ but
in the United Sates we call it ‘contributions’, they got money into their
campaigns and got elected. So, if that was a goal, it was a big success.
[ JOHN CHRIS KIRIAKOU, FORMER US INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ]I think that president Biden's position
that he has no regrets is disingenuous, it's meant for public consumption. The Americans didn't
know what to long-term. We just throw money at the problem. And that never works. You know,
there's an old saying at the CIA, that you buy an Afghan warlord, but you can certainly rent one.
[ John ]And that is not a long-term strategy. So here we are, 20 year and
3.2 trillion dollars later we have literally nothing to show for it.
[ VO ]Over 20 years, roughly 750,000 troops from several countries
served in Afghanistan. More than 3,500 Western coalition soldiers
were killed. Americans suffered the most casualties among all
foreign contingents. At the same time, by some estimates, the Afghan
national army and police lost more than 65,000 troops. The
total number of civilian deaths is impossible to estimate, but it
numbers in the HUNDREDS of thousands. This bloodbath has brought
neither peace to Afghanistan nor succeeded in defeating terrorism.
[ Peter ]Now, we’re going to have not only the Vietnam syndrome, but the Afghanistan
syndrome, and a little bit of the Iraq syndrome. But the visuals are so reminiscent of
the visuals of people trying to escape from the helicopters, from the roofs of the
embassy. That, you know, the United States hopefully is going to learn some lessons.
[ Ghulam ]This is the biggest defeat of the 21st century,
[ GHULAM MOHAMMAD JALAL, PRESIDENT, CENTRE FOR THE AFGHAN DIASPORA IN RUSSIA ]not only
for the US, but also the West, because the world was watching Many other countries
thought the US would bring stabilisation and construction, but there's only ruin!
[ Ghulam ] Who will invite them now? And NATO's slogan says it can establish world order!
[ VO ]Initially, the Biden administration planned to end
the 20-year war by 9/11, the 20th anniversary of the
worst terrorist attack in US history, to which they
responded with the longest EVER military campaign.
[ VO ]But they failed to make a graceful exit. Their withdrawal was more like a hasty retreat.
[ Peter ]And Biden certainly didn’t expect this to crumble so quickly. So, he was unprepared. The thing happen
just almost overnight. So, they were saying three months, it ended up taking three minutes before this collapsed.
[ John ]The main goal of destroying terrorism in Afghanistan wasn't achieved? Yes and no. Al-Qaida
[ John ] Al-Qaida, essentially no longer exists. Good for us. But Daesh exists, ISIS, which came out of
there are certainly other terrorist groups, that are worse than Al-Qaida. Look at Syria! Now we're...
here the United States is arming and financing the Nusra front, that's an Al-Qaida group! How do
you explain that to the American people?! That this is the same group of at least an off-shot of
the group, that murderers 3000 Americans on one day, and now we're sending them weapons and money?!
WRITTEN BY DMITRY KHRUSTALEV DIRECTED BY OLEG NEKISHEV CORRESPONDENTS VITALY
BUZUEV ALEKSEY BRAZHNIKOV CAMERA OPERATORS SERGEY TSYGANOV DMITRY TARARAKO YAROSLAV
SHUYAKOV SERAFIM FYODOROV ALEKSANDR PANOV ALEKSEY BRAZHNIKOV PRODUCERS LYUDMILA
SHAMANOVA MARIANNA DRAVNEL VIDEO EDITORS OLEG NEKISHEV ALEKSEY NEKAZAKOV DMITRY
BORZENKO SOUND EDITOR SERGEY EVSTIGNEEV MOTION DESIGN DIANA SHANGARYAEVA TRANSLATORS
ALEKSANDR PETROV KARINA CHUMAKOVA NARRATOR DAVID A. WATSON STYLE EDITORS MICHAEL
F. LEHNARTZ STEVE ELLIOTT EDITORS ALEKSANDRA ERMOLAEVA MIKHAIL VOLCHKOV DEPUTY
HEAD OF RTDOC CHANNEL GALINA ARKHIPOVA HEAD OF RTDOC CHANNEL EKATERINA YAKOVLEVA