Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, Australian journalist Shadi Khan Saif, who lived through the war in Afghanistan, says the world must learn that military force alone cannot solve conflicts. Writing in a personal reflection, Saif describes how the attacks set off a cycle of violence that continues to reverberate.
From Pakistan to Kabul: A Personal Journey
Saif vividly remembers watching the breaking news of the 9/11 attacks on a television in Pakistan, where his family had been sheltering since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They could not return because of the civil war and subsequent Taliban rule. At first, it seemed like a horrific Hollywood movie scene, but when US President George W. Bush declared a global "war on terror," it became real and monumental for years to come.
The Taliban were driven from Kabul, followed by the deployment of US forces, later joined by Nato allies, including Australia. Within months, a new Afghan government was cobbled together through negotiations in Bonn, Germany. Saif's elder brother got a job with the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the family felt safer about returning to Kabul.
Australia's Longest War
Saif began his journalistic journey in Kabul and soon sensed the paradoxes and bitter realities of war. Afghanistan's few urban centres were enjoying relative peace and marching rapidly towards modernity, thanks to foreign assistance. But across much of the countryside, the war was reaching a deadly stalemate, with millions caught between foreign forces, western-backed Afghan forces and Taliban militants.
Australia was an important part of this story. More than 35,000 Australians served in Afghanistan or in support of the war over two decades. Forty-seven Australian Defence Force personnel are recorded by the Australian War Memorial as having died as a result of their service, with 263 wounded. For Australians, Afghanistan became the country where a generation of soldiers served their longest war. For Afghans, it became a country where another generation tried to build a new life amid an old war.
Hope and Fragility in Afghanistan
Saif was inspired by Afghanistan's young generation, who dodged bombings and violence almost daily while trying to build a new society. Kabul was bustling with youthful energy, with scores of new universities enrolling thousands of students. Women entered parliament, took up government jobs, and joined professions that had been closed to them for years. Independent newspapers, radio and television stations flourished.
But the experiment was fragile. Signs of fatigue in the US, coupled with rampant corruption among the Afghan elite, began to undermine the emerging democracy. The international community had invested enormous amounts of money and military power, but the distance between its ambitions and the everyday reality of Afghans was enormous. In many parts of the country, people remained caught between an insurgency that was growing stronger and a government that struggled to provide security, justice and basic services.
The Collapse and the Lessons
Just weeks before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the US rushed to withdraw from Afghanistan. The Afghan government and security forces rapidly collapsed, the Taliban swept into Kabul, and images of desperate Afghans trying to flee shocked the world. Australia returned to Kabul for one final mission: the evacuation from the airport. After two decades of helping build a new Afghanistan, Australia was suddenly helping people escape from the collapse of that very project.
Saif, now in Melbourne, sees the devastating decline of rights and liberties in Afghanistan on his new TV. He argues that one lesson the world must have learned is that boots on the ground or any other forms of war is not the only solution. He suggests Australia can continue humanitarian assistance, support Afghan women, journalists, educators and civil society, use its diplomatic influence with allies to keep Afghanistan from disappearing from the international agenda, and provide meaningful pathways for Afghans at genuine risk. Most importantly, Australia can listen more carefully to Afghans themselves.
