On September 11th 2001, a date which will live in infamy, the seminal event of the 21st century occurred as nineteen Saudi terrorists of the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes on domestic flights over American airspace.

Two of the flights, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, Flight 11 striking the North Tower and Flight 175 striking the South Tower.

The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into The Pentagon - the home of the US Department of Defence and the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93 which is believed to have been headed for the US Capitol Building but was downed over southeastern Pennsylvania.

It took just 30 seconds for the New York City Fire Department to respond. After burning for almost an hour, the South Tower collapsed under the weight of the building above, the steel support beams having melted. Half an hour after that, the North Tower collapsed in the same manner. Almost 3,000 people were killed.

The attacks were a statement of intent. Designed to cripple America’s economy, national security and her democracy. If it wasn’t for passengers retaking control over Flight 93, they would have gone off flawlessly.

This is the day considered to be the start of the War on Terror. Less than a month later, a US-backed coalition helped the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and so began a war which has lasted for 20 years.

For 20 years, brave men and women of these fair isles have given their lives over to duty and service and to protect their country and unfortunately, some of those poor souls have not returned. It is believed that over 200,000 people have been killed in this war, including 47,000 civilians and 456 British soldiers, with over 2000 British troops having been injured in the line of duty. It is a tragic loss of life and my heart goes out to all the families who have lost someone in this war.

However, it seems this war is finally coming to an unceremonious end as US President Joe Biden has declared that all remaining US troops in Afghanistan are to be withdrawn by September 11th 2021, exactly 20 years on from the 9/11 attacks. 

This has been praised and criticised in almost equal measure. One hand, it will put an end to 20 years of American presence in Afghanistan, on the other hand it could see a step backwards in terms of Afghanistan’s civil rights as the ultra-conservative Taliban would most likely strip away many of the reforms made by the more liberal government installed after the initial invasion in 2001, such as improvements in women’s rights including ending the requirement for women to wear full burka in public and allowing girls to go to school. This is of course extremely worrisome. Should the Taliban regain control of Afghanistan in the vacuum of coalition forces withdrawing, we would no doubt see a return of the hardline Islamist theocracy that was in place after the Taliban seized control in 1996 after a 4 year civil war against the more moderate Islamist provisional government in Kabul that took power after the fall of the Soviet-backed republic which fell in 1992, not long after the USSR itself fell in 1991.

On the other hand, there is also the fact that the Taliban is not as popular as they were before the 2001 invasion. In 2001, the Taliban had the support of around half of the Afghan population, now it’s down to less than a quarter of the population. The Taliban are not the popular movement anymore, the republic is. The Afghan people are enjoying their new freedoms, which does not well please the Taliban. They spent 5 years stripping away the progress of the communist and moderate republics before it and they would happily do the same to the current state, but it would be highly unwelcome.

Is abandoning the Afghan people to the Taliban the best option? Obviously not. However, do I think a second Taliban regime will last? Absolutely not. Freedom and liberty are a sweet nectar that is almost impossible to give up once you get a taste, especially after suffering from decades of tyranny and one-party rule like the Afghans have. Of course, this withdrawal from Afghanistan doesn’t mean we should simply abandon the nation, not by any means. We need to ensure, should the current republic remain and the Taliban are defeated, that we give aid to Afghanistan to ensure the Taliban never return and to defeat the evil of poverty. However if the Taliban do regain control, we need to apply international political and economic pressure on the Taliban in hopes that they yield and if necessary, sanction the Taliban, its leaders and even the nation itself. This is not the option I would prefer as it would cause as much harm to the Afghan people as it would to the Taliban. But we do not negotiate with terrorists. So we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If we leave Afghanistan, we are leaving the Afghanis at the hands of the Taliban, but if we stay, we will spend millions of pounds on a war in a country thousands of miles away and risk the lives of our soldiers. Ultimately, it is not my job to decide. That is up to my colleague in the MoD, his advisors and our military leaders.

My fifty cents is that we should prioritise helping the Kurds fight ISIL in Syria and Northern Iraq, as well as protect them against Turkey. But there are no easy solutions here and I am not a military strategist. The future of Afghanistan is one the UK, our allies in NATO and the international community should pay very close attention to. Afghanistan has often been called the "Graveyard of Empires" as the Macedons, Mongols, Russians and British failed to cement control on the region. The North cannot be held and neither can Afghanistan. Only time can tell I'm afraid.

Rt Hon SomeBritishDude26 MP,

Secretary of State for Transport