The simple truth? Afghanistan just wasn’t worth it

An Australian soldier hones his marksmanship in Afghanistan in 2011. Picture: Department of Defence

There is one thing we owe Diggers who served and died in Afghanistan even more than we owe them our gratitude – and that is the truth.

On Monday, our national leaders, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese, and their deputies and defence spokesmen made a well motivated first pass at accounting for the Afghanistan war and its bitter outcome.

They all spoke well, sombrely, motivated in part by a righteous appreciation of our service men and women. But there is one thing they could not bring themselves to say.

This Afghanistan adventure was, strategically, a complete and absolute disaster.

There was honour in the Australian uniform and all those who wore it but there is one thing that soldiers know. Wars have outcomes. And we lost this war. We didn’t come close. We didn’t get the silver medal. We lost.

The US-led coalition achieved unmitigated disaster in the war’s outcome. To say we educated more girls than previously in Afghanistan is no consolation if we then hand them over to the tender mercies of one of the most bloodthirsty and ruthless Islamist terror outfits the world has seen.

The initial military intervention in 2001 was to destroy al-Qa’ida and the Taliban regime that sponsored it. That was successful.

The nation-building effort, which began for us in earnest in 2005, was designed in part so that these gains would be permanent. More than that, so we might help Afghans to a better future.

Our Diggers and everyone deserve to hear us tell the truth. As part of a US-led coalition, we have failed in these aims. Not come close. Not achieved some things but lost other things. We have failed utterly.

Morrison spoke well and eloquently and, like Albanese, with a palpable affection for our soldiers. But he erred when he said: “Was it worth it? Yes it was.”

No it wasn’t.

The Taliban now controls more territory in Afghanistan than it did when it was notionally in power in the late 1990s.

Anyone who believes the Taliban’s new-found declarations of moderation needs their head read. The Taliban is more sophisticated than it was 20 years ago, and there could be something useful in that, but it is just as extreme, just as depraved, just as intolerant as it ever was.

Terrorism once more has control of an entire nation, a reality that has not existed for the 20 years since the Taliban was first driven from office.

Pakistan has been rewarded for its support of the Taliban.

China has been rewarded for its support of Pakistan. Beijing and Moscow are delighted at the West’s humiliation.

We had good intentions, but it’s by no means clear we did anything for the long-term benefit of Afghans. To create a tiny liberal elite, and a slightly wider smattering of people with better and broader horizons than previously, and then throw them back into the maw of the worst Islamist terrorists in the world – did that really help them? And the Afghans who helped us whom we can’t evacuate – what is our moral ledger with them?

And the effect on us? We now have a land force well designed with billions of dollars worth of useless heavy armour, to play a moderate supporting role in strategically irrelevant side shows that will never come up again.

It wasn’t worth it. And we should have the honesty to say so. For the last person you should ever lie to is yourself.