Let down, again and again Bitter result of trusting west's empty principles

Yesterday's revelations about the UK's dangerously cavalier treatment of Afghans who worked with British forces are shocking but not surprising.

- Emma Graham-Harrison

The carelessness with which Britain went to war in Afghanistan was matched by the carelessness with which it left the country and its people to Taliban rule two decades later. In 2001 the US and its allies dressed up a war of revenge for 9/11 as a moral mission to build democracy and protect women's rights, rejecting a Taliban offer of surrender out of a conviction that they could remake Afghanistan as they wished.

In the summer of 2021, with the full withdrawal of US forces looming, it was clear the Afghan government they had propped up for years was fragile. Many of the Afghans who backed it, worked for it or believed in western promises of long-term support for democracy and human rights were at risk.

Despite Taliban promises of moderation in 2021, there was no room for complacency. The militants marked their previous capture of Kabul in 1996 by killing a former president and hanging his mutilated body from a lamppost. They assassinated officials, activists, journalists and others throughout the war.