Afghan government collapse.

[Blair]

Starting to wonder how wise Biden was to stay that it wasn’t going to end up like Saigon in ‘75.

Has there been a good piece/comment on why the Afghan forces have fallen so quickly? I read that the Army tend to rout or give up a lot quicker than the police do, as the latter are locals and have more of a stake.

[Blair]

It's been briefed (by the MOD obviously) that the UK wanted a multi-lateral coalition to remain but couldn't convince the other NATO powers.

I'd take it with a pinch of salt & frankly I doubt the UK Military would have the capacity to do much other than guard Kabul.

[Blair]

Genuinely curious- I've seen a lot about how bad the Afghan National Army is and how much of this is actually down to the structure of the Afghan state.  What are the alternatives could have been that would have prevented or delayed this?

I've been relatively ignorant of politics in Afghanistan over the last 10 years.

[Blair]

How much of a factor was Ghani in the situation turning south so quickly?

[Blair]

One of the more damning parts only just being revealed is how bad the intelligence was- you’d hope that if the US/UK/Germany etc had known how quickly it would unravel they’d have seriously scaled up the process to get people out of the country.

My hunch is that a larger amount of NATO Afghan interpreters from the US got out- while the wider population who’d worked with the Coalition in various forms (contactors, guards, NGOs etc) were not given the urgent priority as they thought they’d have longer.

After the recent issues with MI5 it makes me wonder what MI6 were doing…

[Blair]

I don’t know why you’d think the aid money would go right into the Treasury in the forms of bonds or gold?