4. Perspectives on The 2021 Afghanistan Evacuation - Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant James Langan

Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant James Langan is one half of the UK’s Kabul evacuation Combat Camera Team. He captured the dramatic and intense moments of evacuating Afghan citizens granted asylum in allied nations. Under Operation Pitting, the UK armed forces airlifted more than 15,000 Afghans and British nationals, and in total US and allies removed over 120,000 people out of the Afghan capital Kabul, as the Taliban seized control of the country

Jimmy has just completed his MPhil Politics & Int. Studies at Cambridge University and is currently working for Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.

The historic US and allies withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, marked the end of a two-decade-long military presence initiated in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks orchestrated by Al Qaeda, who had found sanctuary under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Twenty years after these attacks, Kabul airport became the stage for the largest airlift in history. Thousands desperately sought escape from the resurgent Taliban, with chaotic scenes unfolding: people sprinting across runways, scaling walls, perishing in stampedes, and clinging to aircraft as they took off.

PICS
00:09 Combat Camera Team at Kabul airport ©MoD
00:26 ‘Potential evacuees watch flights take off by the runway’ ©MoD
05:04 ‘British helping an Afghan woman from the sewer to check her documentation for entitlement to evacuation. This was Covid btw no social distancing’ ©MoD
05:31 ‘Evacuees between the Baron Hotel and Abbey Gate’ ©MoD
06:11 ‘British military officer gives Afghan baby water’ ©MoD
07:59 ‘Wall of the Baron Hotel with the road leading to the Abbey Gate’ ©MoD
09:05 ‘Final evacuation flight, capacity of the aircraft is 180 people we exceeded this with over 350 Afghan refugees’ ©MoD
17:00 ‘Sewer where the suicide bomber detonated’ ©MoD
19:12 ‘Evacuation flight departing Kabul’ ©MoD
30:39 Afghan women Incredible scenes of women's liberation in 1970s Afghanistan (nypost.com)
31:00 Afghan teacher Incredible scenes of women's liberation in 1970s Afghanistan (nypost.com)
32:48 Afghan nurses Incredible scenes of women's liberation in 1970s Afghanistan (nypost.com)
33:01 Afghan air hostess Incredible scenes of women's liberation in 1970s Afghanistan (nypost.com)
33:11 Kabul polytechnic Incredible scenes of women's liberation in 1970s Afghanistan (nypost.com)
40:57 ‘Sewer where the suicide bomber detonated’ ©MoD
01:39:31 Osama bin Laden: his life in pictures | World news | The Guardian
01:40:22 Osama bin Laden: the mummy’s boy who found refuge in radicalism (thetimes.com)
01:46:57 ‘British military officer gives Afghan baby water’ ©MoD
01:47:07 ‘Two British soldiers in a rare moment of respite’ ©MoD
01:47:22 ‘Potential evacuees watch flights take off by the runway’ ©MoD

01:48:20 Osama bin Laden: his life in pictures | World news | The Guardian
01:50:02 Osama bin Laden: the mummy’s boy who found refuge in radicalism (thetimes.com)
01:51:21 ‘British helping an Afghan woman from the sewer to check her documentation for entitlement to evacuation. This was Covid btw no social distancing’ ©MoD
01:52:15 ‘Sir Laurie Bristow’ ©MoD
01:53:54 'Final evacuation flight, capacity of the aircraft is 180 people we exceeded this with over 350 Afghan refugees’ ©MoD
01:54:28 ‘This father woke me up to tell me his daughter had a question. She asked if she could be a Dr in England, I said “in England you can be anything you want to be”’ ©MoD

REFERENCES
Context of Operation Pitting
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/us-military-withdraws-afghanistan/index.html
“The evacuation was a success; the fact that we had to do it was a strategic failure.” - Hughes Hall (cam.ac.uk)
Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy: further information on eligibility criteria, offer details and how to apply - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Context of Taliban
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-27307249
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/8/taliban-make-burqa-mandatory-for-afghan-women
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58437713
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/women-in-saudi-arabia-do-not-need-to-wear-head-cover-says-crown-prince-1.3433096
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/6/27/afghanistan-who-are-the-hazaras
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/afghanistan-taliban-responsible-for-brutal-massacre-of-hazara-men-new-investigation/
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0.htm
https://www.unesco.org/en/safety-journalists/observatory/country-overview?country=39a798b1-541f-534f-a507-28331dba9adf&hub=72609
https://malala.org/malalas-story/
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/23/world/un-taliban-human-rights-violations-afghanistan-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/18/afghanistan-taliban-child-soldier-recruitment-surges
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27250144

History of Afghanistan
https://www.britannica.com/event/Durand-Line
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/durand-line/
https://www.dawn.com/news/1318594
https://x.com/KarzaiH/status/838241472193396736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E838241472193396736%7Ctwgr%5Edfd01d2ae2d00afc98c7b7b7d9d813236651efaa%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dawn.com%2Fnews%2F1318594
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231848.shtml
https://www.britannica.com/place/Pakistan/Birth-of-the-new-state
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/who-responsible-taliban
https://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/23/afghan.king.reut/
Incredible scenes of women's liberation in 1970s Afghanistan (nypost.com)
https://www.history.com/news/1979-soviet-invasion-afghanistan
https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan/Civil-war-communist-phase-1978-92
https://thediplomat.com/2024/01/how-the-soviet-invasion-of-afghanistan-strengthened-pakistans-military-deep-state/
https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/photo/c12817-02
https://www.vox.com/videos/2021/11/11/22776772/taliban-afghanistan-mujahideen-history-takeover
https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan/Civil-war-mujahideen-Taliban-phase-1992-2001
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/7/4/timeline-taliban-in-afghanistan
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/19/1028472005/afghanistan-conflict-timeline
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/7/4/timeline-taliban-in-afghanistan
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/19/1028472005/afghanistan-conflict-timeline
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Osama-bin-Laden
https://www.cfr.org/article/pakistans-support-taliban-what-know
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan2/Afghan0701-02.htm

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/07/afghanistan-in-the-1950s-and-60s/100544/
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/afghanistan-in-the-1970s
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/07/afghanistan-in-the-1950s-and-60s/100544/
https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/2005/08/ForeignPolicy_Taliban_Paper.pdf

911 and the Cost of Afghanistan War
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57698668
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9298/
https://www.defense.gov/casualty.pdf
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/afghanistan-war#section_1
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/war-on-terror-timeline
https://www.britannica.com/topic/war-on-terrorism

Putin and Bush
https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/2002/10469.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/24/usa.russia
https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/si/si_1_1/si_1_1_tsm01.pdf
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-023-00524-x
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/11/13/bush.putin/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/24/usa.russia

Afghanistan at Operation Pitting
https://afghanistan.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/UN%20Country%20Results%20Report%202021_final.pdf