Brian Brivati - Losing Afghanistan: The Fall of Kabul And The End of Western Intervention

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Those who wonder how the international community failed so dramatically in Afghanistan need look no further. This selection of essays makes sombre reading. The differing points of view demonstrate the complexity of the challenge.Losing Afghanistan explores the arguments for and against intervention and highlights the difficulty of establishing unity of purpose and effort in such demanding circumstances. Above all, it poses a question: how can we in the West claim we know so much, yet demonstrate in Afghanistan that we understand so little?

G eneral ( retd ) S ir J ack D everell OBE, former C ommander-in- C hief of A llied F orces N orthern E urope

A wonderful book of insightful essays on Afghanistan from an outsider lens.

E zatullah A dib, head of research at I ntegrity W atch A fghanistan and national country representative at the W orld A ssociation for P ublic O pinion R esearch

The efforts to solve the immense and complex problems in Afghanistan may have often been misdirected, but failure was not guaranteed. Unfortunately, the peace negotiations, leading to the inappropriate haste of withdrawal, fatally undermined the populations confidence, catalysing the untimely collapse of the government. The strategic question posed by these brilliant essays is: how can the doctrine of liberal intervention be reframed to ensure the West intervenes overseas to manage future humanitarian calamities for reasons beyond just national security?

B rigadier ( retd ) J ustin H edges OBE

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This book is dedicated by its contributors to a number of different groups of people. To the women and girls of Afghanistan who have seen their dreams snatched away with the return of the Taliban. To the servicemen and women and their families who served in Afghanistan over the past twenty years in the NATO coalition and in the security forces of Afghanistan, and to the memory of all those who lost their lives.

The tumult and the shouting dies;

The Captains and the Kings depart:

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

A humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget lest we forget!

R udyard K ipling, R ecessional

All proceeds from this collection will be donated to the Afghan Writing Project at Untold Stories which supports women writers in Afghanistan. Their first collection of stories, My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird,will be published in February 2022 by MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Editions Limited. vi

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CONTENTS

1. The Text of Hate
   Masood Khalili (translated by Robert Darr)
2. AFGHAN WITNESS 1
   Zarifa: A Policewoman Faces a Dangerous Future
3. 
   
4. AFGHAN WITNESS 3
   Sakhi: Losing My Culture Overnight