York Army veteran's 'despair' at crisis in Afghanistan

Kerry Hutchinson, a former Archbishop Holgate’s pupil, did three tours of Afghanistan between 2008 and 2013 as an Army Reserve Captain and later Major.

He first served with British and Coalition forces in Helmand Province, working with village elders and district leaders to help them rebuild Governance structures after years of war and civil war. His two later tours were served on attachment with US Marines, helping to assess Afghan government programmes.

He says recent events have left him "deeply saddened" for British families who lost loved ones in the country. “From a personal perspective, how could anyone reassure them that the last 20 years were not for nothing, that their sacrifices were not in vain?

“I feel despair, too, for all those girls and women who could attend school and seek professions in the last 20 years, and may now be unable to do so.

“There is a wide gulf between the finely worded intentions of the Taliban leadership about women, education, rule of law and stamping out corruption on the one hand, and their local mujahedeen on the ground, on the other. Because it is these local mujahedeen who wield the real power - from the barrels of their guns.

“I forecast nothing but an impending medieval and barbaric ‘Game of Thrones’ - but with mobile phones. Were the sacrifices so many families paid worth this?”

Mr Hutchinson said the rapid collapse of the Afghan government forces in the face of the Taliban advance was no real surprise. During his tours of duty of the country, he saw the efforts made by British and Coalition forces to help the Afghan security forces resist the Taliban. “Major efforts were made to help rebuild and shore up administrative functions, rule of law and stability,” he said.

“But all our efforts were hindered then, as they have been since, by endemic, institutional corruption, nepotism and the malevolent string-pulling of the political patronage network. This was made worse by a societal reluctance to support central Government in Kabul, favouring instead the traditional loyalty to family, clan, and village.”

Despite working within an intensely patriarchal society, progress had been made, he said. “Girls could attend schools again and women could aspire to professions, at least in the cities.” Yet endemic corruption and distrust of central authority remained. Once US and British troops pulled out, it was "no small wonder" that the Afghan military - poorly paid, poorly resourced and lacking in purpose - had collapsed so quickly.

There may have been a more compelling human reason too, he added. “That all the Afghan Security Forces melted away so quickly may be because of the catastrophic casualty rates they have been suffering these last 20 years - over 66,000 killed, and untold numbers wounded. Perhaps they had just had enough of the carnage and wanted to just return to their families while they still could?”