I remember the Russians being defeated by Afghanistan I remember when we went into Afghanistan, and I don’t understand why things have turned so bad. I am an avid listener and watcher of news, so I suppose I am as well informed as most ordinary people. So why is there such a lack of knowledge about how and why the resurgence of the Taliban has happened so quickly?

All we see on news now is terrified people trying to get out of their own country because they are being ruled by tyrants that rely on fear to keep control. Some parallels with several other countries in the world including some alleged democracies in the west. Fear is the tool most often used to control the populations and allow these people to remain in power.

I have vivid memories of watching the news of the Vietnam war eating my dinner as filmed footage showed an American soldier throwing a hand grenade into a Vietnamese machine gun post and seeing limbs being thrown into the air by the blast. It was so unreal to me as a child, but the image has stayed with me for about 55 years. I suppose it could be called a mental scar I have no idea, but it gave me a feeling on reflection as an adult of the awful reality of war.

It seems that there is only one area that has an effective resistance movement that the Taliban have not been able to defeat. Why is this surely those that don’t want to live under the rule of the Taliban would form some sort of opposition? There seems to be no shortage of weapons in the country, and someone shot with a thirty year old gun is just as dead as someone shot with a new one. Perhaps the country’s that are pulling out should be promoting some sort of rebellion amongst the population. And helping them to help themselves as most seem to be too frightened to resist. It seems to be falling to the Panjshir valley region to lead the resistance movement perhaps support for them will be the only hope for Afghanistan. And its beleaguered population.

Of course, there will be many who will welcome the return of the Taliban and the subjugation of its women but not all. They have had twenty years of educating the young and these are the people who will need to be challenging the return to what appears to the west as the dark ages.