15/08/2021
Recent and constant TV news channel's preoccupation with Afghanistan prompts memories.
Afghanistan is beyond the North West Frontier of India, the other side of the Khyber Pass, and was invaded by the British in the 1880s to stop any invasion, possibly by Russia into India, India was the "Jewel" in the Crown of the British Empire.
Our force of possibly 20,000 souls, soldiers, families, diplomats, bureaucrats etc were all killed by the various tribes existing in Afghanistan at that time. These tribes were, and many still are, capable of killing friends, foes, allies and enemies if and when an advantage could or can be obtained.
One man, a doctor, was sent back to the British HQ, and a painting was made "All That Was Left of Them" attached. All members of the British Expeditionary Force or Occupation Force or Invasion Force, men, women and children were killed, except for the good doctor. Pics attached.
The dust coloured "kahkie" of the uniforms was so called because the local name, or Urdu name, for sand/dust was kahkie.
The Russians attempted to occupy and adopt the country thirty years ago, we and the Americans gave arms, equipment and money to anyone who said they would fight the Russians. Based on the premise that "any enemy of my enemy must be my friend". Tens of millions of hard currency to fighters who later became the Taliban.
The Brits and the Yankees "invaded" twenty years ago in order to fight these "freedom fighters", the Taliban, our former allies who we so kindly trained and equipped.
And now, having decided to leave, we are going back to the assistance of our civilian populations in Kabul, which, by the time you read this may well have fallen, despite our governmental suggestion, only on Friday that it was unlikely to be attacked in the next 90 days! Why the UK and US civilians didn't leave last week or even last month is unknown.
Let us hope that more than one doctor escapes this time and that our British and American soldiers come to no great harm.
John Tunstill
