Is the West in retreat?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The south of Afghanistan is now under Taleban control, after the group took the cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah this week. Meanwhile, Britain and America are deploying thousands of troops - as many as were there before the withdrawal began earlier this year - to evacuate expats and the majority of embassy staff. After a 20-year war in Afghanistan, the West is running away.

Britain and her allies, however, will continue to face challenges like Russian aggression and Chinese expansionism in the coming decade. Will we just sit back and accept our decline? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and General Sir Richard Barrons, who helped set up the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2001, and was deputy chief of the defence staff from 2011 to 2013.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:25.8	Hello and welcome to the Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots. I'm Isabel Harbin and I'm joined by
0:31.7	James Forsyth and General Richard Barron's who helped to establish the International Security Assistance
0:37.3	Force in Afghanistan.
0:39.6	Well, the Taliban have been sweeping through Afghan provincial capitals over the past week,
0:45.4	capturing 11 in the space of fewer than seven days. The US withdrawal of troops isn't yet complete,
0:53.2	and yet the country seems to be collapsing into a state that politicians assured us that we wouldn't see.
1:01.7	Richard, just tell us why this has happened so quickly and whether that has been a surprise to those watching the country closely.
1:09.0	So it is a surprise. It's a surprise in terms of the speed at which has happened
1:13.8	and in the way in particular,
1:16.1	the Taliban have managed to take some of the metropolitan areas
1:20.1	that really matter like Kandahar just in the last 24 hours.
1:24.6	Why it's happened is because the US decision to withdraw its troops on the 20th
1:32.2	anniversary of 9-11 has removed a spine of capability, but beyond that a sense of resolution and
1:41.8	confidence from the Afghan National Army.
1:44.6	And so those Afghan forces that were responsible for fighting in the more rural as Afghanistan
1:50.5	have felt that they were on their own.
1:53.2	In some cases, they would have been fighting for areas to which they have no personal loyalty.
1:57.7	They don't live there and they don't plan to live there. And as they've seen
2:02.8	the Taliban coming at them in force, they've looked over their shoulders and they've detected that
2:08.0	the Americans aren't there and the Afghan national security institutions, they're not there either.
2:13.1	So no logistics, no casualty evacuation, no reinforcements, no ammunition.
	...

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