YouTube Transcript: 2141 Lesson 6.2 Afghanistan, Lest We Forget
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The withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan was poorly managed, prioritizing arbitrary timelines over on-the-ground realities, leading to the swift collapse of the Afghan government and a humanitarian crisis, particularly for women.
two lesson six Afghanistan least we forget
forget
okay the Biden Administration I
mentioned before should have announced a
longer withdrawal time in April 2021
they wanted to withdraw by the 20th
anniversary of 9 11. so they took their
own own interests their own time-based
interests and they didn't think about
the ground-based considerations on the
ground they should have consulted and
withdrawn more slowly but they were very
eager to get out of Afghanistan
the Afghan president ghani was very
withdrawn he was isolated he didn't even
communicate with his own advisors
including saki nampur who was at that
time advising on The Afghan National
Defense Force including the different
sectors of the military which were
clearly not trained well enough to take
they promised not to allow Al-Qaeda
which was a terrorist group a safe haven
they promised that they would not be
allowed this Safe Haven in Afghanistan
how would they have done that it was
impossible for them to to even try to do
that the Taliban promised all sorts of
things and then they attacked the
provincial capitals
the tailbone basically could not be
trusted but more could nor can or could
the the guy government nor could a
potential government led by Karzai who
was the former president that I
mentioned before or another guy Abdullah
Abdullah who is waiting in the wings the
whole situation was kind of like Vietnam
and Saigon in the 1970s and people
realized that there was going to be a
bloodbath meaning a a terrible
disastrous that would come
so the Resolute Resolute support mission
was often touted they wanted
augmentation but the NATO allies were
not they just didn't want to commit so
at NATO headquarters pictured there they
were very worried that Canada didn't
want to commit to further helping or
developing the Afghan National Security Force
Afghan the Afghan government only
controlled 55 of the country's districts
the president who was a former academic
kept saying oh we were winning and we're
doing so well but cigar which is the
expected special Inspector General for
Afghan reconstruction reported in the
United States that essentially they were
not able to keep keep control of their
um of their of the country they couldn't
hold on to it remember that isil was the
world's wealthiest terrorist
organization in human history and so
people were worried that they would take
over Afghanistan as well
would it be possible to transition
toward a political party I I did not
think so would they share power no not
at all
women's rights we talked about that a
minute ago but really it was extremely
difficult to enshrine women's right
rights and to try to make sure that
women were sharing power
hopefully now the Taliban will
understand that if they treat women as
as as badly as they did before then they
will become even more of a pariah State
other countries like Pakistan and Iran
will not want to associate with them the
Taliban though it looks like that their
promises are completely broken they are
Banning women 200 women judges are in
hiding women cannot run businesses and
women can only teach in primary schools hmm
hmm
it's really a Pity because so many
Canadian Forces served there and tried
to build schools so many people died so
many development organizations went
there and now what's going to happen
a lot of Canadian veterans suffer from
PTSD I've seen that myself they are
having trouble recovering from what they
saw in Afghanistan as well seven
civilians passed away
including one to Diplomat so for those
of us who were involved with Afghanistan
what should we do how can we help
if you're a private sponsor you have to
work in a group of five or more who are
Canadian citizens you have to get all
this complicated paperwork done you have
to explain how you're going to sponsor afghans
afghans
you also have to get the applicant
recognized as an official Refugee or you
have to have them recognized
um by Foreign State as a unhcr refugee
is kind of complicated I at the time
told people in Afghanistan that I knew
just take any kind of transportation to
get out of Afghanistan but that advice
turned out to be quite dangerous
the Taliban started blocking roads and
beating up people some of my friends hid
in basements because they were worried
about being captured they didn't use
their cell phones
one colleague wrote to me we're still
alive and you can it was quite poignant
he felt that his life could end at any
time he's changing his location there's
no way to escape
he uh he thought maybe the U.S military
could save him and his family take them
to Kabul
I've lost my sleeping anyway I was very distressing
my colleagues had reached the Kabul
Airfield the runways were full of
Europeans and Americans trying to get
their own citizens out President Biden
also promised to keep out uh keep
bringing out the interpreters and
Embassy staff so the airport was full
and people couldn't leave
at this point it's difficult to say what
can be done the Canadian Prime Minister
has promised to take in 40 000 refugees
but there's a huge backlog compared to
the Syrian refugees the 40 000 will be
daunting Canada brought in nearly 40 000
Syrian refugees in essentially one year
how many Afghans could Canada bring in
there are more than 5 million Afghans in
Kabul the airport is shut down half the
population lives in Kabul and there are
36.6 million people in the entire country
country
so it's just about the same number as in Canada
Canada
it's a very stray-fridden small country
about the size of Ontario or Texas and
it will be powerfully afflicted by
drought and natural disasters in the future
future
we can blame if you want NATO officials
for not publicly protesting they did
behind the scenes but when Biden
suddenly announced the withdrawal but
publicly they didn't say anything they
just tried to move ahead and organize
the forces to get out
the date was just arbitrarily chosen it
was based on American needs and not on
Afghan requirements so the as soon as
the United States started pulling out of
resolute support mission in May uh
basically by May 1st 2021 and then they
planned to completely withdraw the
troops within a few months that picture
on the right is of the NATO meeting
where they decided that's the internal
inside meeting where they decide to pull
out of Afghanistan completely and some
policy makers were were met by complete surprise
surprise
the Afghan Army was completely under
trained poor under equipped and as soon
as the Taliban warlord started to
threaten them then the Army took off
their uniforms and some of them even
joined the Taliban or they just bicycled away
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