15 August 2021. I messaged London. ‘Taliban are through the palace gate.’ Shortly afterwards, pictures appeared on social media of the Taliban gathered around Ghani’s desk in the Presidential Palace, from which he had broadcast to the nation a few hours before. Kabul had fallen. The Taliban had taken Kabul.
On the third anniversary of the fall of Kabul I am thinking of our military colleagues, who paid such a high price over the twenty year campaign in Afghanistan. And of those Afghans, especially Afghan girls and women, who are paying such a high price for what happened three years ago.