Kabul chaos: Memories of Afghanistan visit haunt Jonathon Moran

Years of war have taken a huge toll on Afghanistan. Jonathon Moran reflects on a land, the people and its haunting beauty that left a lasting impression when he visited in 2013.

Vision of desperate Afghans climbing on planes in Kabul are the stuff of nightmares - even more so for me because I have been privileged to travel there.

In 2013, I was fortunate to take part in a Forces Entertainment Tour of Duty to Afghanistan over a two-week period stopping in Tarin Kowt, Kandahar and Kabul with the likes of Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Silverchair’s Ben Gillies.

Overwhelmingly, the Afghanistan I had imagined before travelling there was nothing like the real life situation.

The mountains around Kabul were haunting shades of grey and brown dust with makeshift tented camps housing displaced locals. But the beauty that once made it a holiday destination shone through.

Jonathon Moran in Afghanistan in 2013..

Screen shots from a video posted online of a US military plane leaving Kabul airport.

Nearly all of my time there was spent on military bases but the Afghan people I met were friendly, generous and would give you the shirt off their back.

If they had one loaf of bread, they would serve it to a guest before themselves.

That is the hospitality that I saw first hand among the LEC’s (locally employed civilian) on base and that I believe Afghans don’t get credit for.

Years of war have taken a huge toll. You can see it in people’s faces.

Afghans queue at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

To this day I often think of a time when I witnessed young children scouring the hillside of a rifle range where firearms were shot for practice. Kids that looked as young as four or five would scoot out between shots on rickety motorbikes that were barely held together to search for spent rounds, anything they could sell at the local market to support their families.

Jonathon Moran visited Kabul back in

2013 and its people left lasting memories.

An Afghan family rushes to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they flee Kabul. Picture: Getty

Jonathon Moran toured in Tarin Kowt, Kandahar and Kabul with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Silverchair’s Ben Gillies..

I’ll leave politics to world leaders like Joe Biden and Scott Morrison. For me though, it is the human toll that is hitting hard right now.

I fear for the men, women and children left to suffer at the hands of the Taliban. Particularly the women.

We are so lucky to have freedom and choice in this land. There, women barely have any rights and this makes me sick to my core.

This is not about religion. This is about humanity and the basic freedoms we take for granted here in Australia.

I can’t help but wonder how we got here.

Taliban fighters guard the roadside in Kabul this week.

Even in 2013, when Australian forces were in the early stage of talks around pulling out of Tarin Kowt, there was a lot of discussion about protecting those that had helped us, the LEC’s, interpreters and others that assisted our forces.

I wonder where they are now. Are they safe or are they among those clamouring for safety at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Jonathon Moran in Afghanistan in 2013.

It would be remiss of me not to think about the many thousands of Australian soldiers who have been there over the past two decades trying to help the Afghan Army fight their own country’s war given the misery that is now taking place.

Whatever way you look at this it is devastating and truly terrifying.

I fear the only time we will truly learn of the atrocities there is not on the evening news but when enough time has passed for Hollywood movies to tell these stories.