Our window of opportunity in Afghanistan has seriously narrowed

Australian Defence Force personnel process the first evacuees from Kabul at Australia's main base in the Middle East region. Picture: ADF

This is what cutting and running looks like.

Australia’s first evacuation flight got just 26 people out of Kabul on an aircraft with the capacity for 128.

The US managed to regain control of the airport on Tuesday after wrenching scenes of people flooding the runway and falling from planes, but the Taliban, which took the capital with barely a shot on Sunday, was refusing access to the terminal on Wednesday.

Western leaders from US President Joe Biden down say they were shocked at the speed of the Taliban advance – yet Australian officials clearly knew the writing was on the wall. Australia closed its embassy in Kabul on May 28 after nearly two decades supporting the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan.

It did so without securing the futures of hundreds of Afghan interpreters and support staff, who are now stranded, in hiding, in Kabul.

Australia has now put together a list with up to 800 names on it to airlift from the country.

It includes Australian citizens and permanent residents, together with interpreters and support staff who have visas or are believed to be eligible for them.

This journalist was in contact with more than a dozen of them on Wednesday. All said they’d had no instructions from the Australian government on what to do next.

If it has not already closed, the window to save them has dramatically narrowed.

No one is suggesting Australia should have stayed in Afghanistan, but a fundamental Australian principle has been betrayed.

Australian veterans who served with Afghan interpreters feel it more than anyone – their mates have been left behind.

Scott Morrison makes much of the fact that 430 Afghans have been brought to Australia since April 15, but many of those were waiting for years for their applications to be processed.

Others have been denied permission to apply – such as aid contractors who worked on Australian “hearts and minds” projects, and security guards who protected Australia’s embassy in Kabul.

John Howard said the country had a moral obligation to provide asylum for those who supported Australian troops.

The Prime Minister no doubt agrees, but his government may have left it too late.