Lieutenant-Colonel Christian Simon was the first Luxembourgish soldier who was sent to Afghanistan 18 years ago. For Simon, who was stationed in Kabul and Kandahar, the answer is clear: "No, it was not all for nothing".
The Lieutenant-Colonel was in Afghanistan two times and while he stresses that the intervention was not for nothing, he also does not hide a certain degree of disappointment.
Simon thinks that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) perhaps set unachievable expectations for itself when it came to the Afghan people. The ISAF noticed "only relatively late" that a government without the Taliban "is simply not possible", the Lieutenant-Colonel explains.
Nobody thought of that during the early years, according to Simon. The first Luxembourgish contingent was deployed alongside the one from Belgium in June 2003. Initially, the deployment was to last for two months. In the end, there were 49 rotations, with a total of 335 Luxembourgish soldiers being deployed.
Simon recounts that during the early days in Kabul, they noticed a real sense of euphoria and optimism among the Afghan population. "They were happy that we were there", the Lieutenant-Colonel explains, adding that the locals did not see them as an occupying power.
In 2003, the mission was to secure the region around Kabul. Following the defeat of the Taliban, the ISAF's goal was to give the interim government a chance to establish itself. This mandate evolved over the years. The idea was that the Afghans should slowly take on more and more responsibilities themselves: Army, police, intelligence…etc
But the mood in the country deteriorated over the years. This was particularly noticeable in 2012, when the Luxembourgish forces were moved to Kandahar. Simon recounts locals asking him why the ISAF was even there since "no real progress was being made". Terror attacks by the Taliban increasingly destabilised the situation, forcing the ISAF to react.
A reaction which "naturally also resulted in collateral damage", Simon states. The Lieutenant-Colonel points out that a terrorist organisation is very different from a "conventional enemy", which soldiers are used to fighting. A terrorist organisation "merges with the population", meaning that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between enemies and friends.
"We were very lucky!": A sentence which has been heard a lot recently among the ranks of the Luxembourgish military. Lucky, because no Luxembourgish soldier was seriously injured in all those years, and no one died. Neither in Kabul, nor in the war zone of Kandahar.
Simon remembers that they had a lot of problems with snipers who "constantly fired into the camp". One time, someone tried to "bomb" their way into the camp. During this last incident, a group of Bulgarian soldiers died – people who he had "come to know very well", Simon explains.
"The mission was not for nothing", but still, there are questions that plague the Lieutenant-Colonel. He was, for instance, taken aback by the speed with which the Taliban resurfaced in Kabul following the retreat of the allied forces.
"It was quite frightening", Simon admits, stating that it does raise the question whether the ISAF actually did everything it could to offer the Afghan authorities the necessary instructions and training to prepare them for a resurgence of the Taliban.
