TV-MA | Documentary | 1hr 18min | 2022
Anyone one still believes there was any degree of planning ahead of the American military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will be disillusioned by this documentary. There are indeed those stomach-churning images of desperate Afghans falling from planes as they lifted-off from Kabul airport, but viewers will also get a sense of the sheer chaos on the ground in Jamie Roberts’s “Escape from Kabul.”
A Difficult Position
Several American officers and enlisted soldiers talk frankly about their difficult duty. They had compassion for the frightened Afghan people, but they had to keep them off the runaway, so reinforcements and supplies could come in and transports planes could leave. Clearly, the deaths of innocent Afghans still haunt them and they bitterly resent the triumph of the Taliban.
If you want to pretend this was not a victory for the Taliban and a defeat for America, do not watch this documentary, because the Taliban commanders Roberts interviews say so in exactly those terms, over and over again. Whereas the Americans who appear on-camera only speak to the events as they happened, the Taliban often make value judgements that go unchallenged. For instance, they are never asked why so many of their fellow countrymen and co-religionists were so terrified of living under their rule.
Arguably, former news anchor Shabnam Dawran serves as the conscience of “Escape from Kabul” when she directly contradicts the Taliban’s claims they would respect the rights of women to fully participate in Afghan society, as she did in the viral social media video that made her a prime target for retribution.
Hearing the day-by-day, hour-by-hour timeline of events is grim but fascinating. Although it was not widely reported in the establishment media, the Taliban themselves claimed to have a ring of suicide bombers surrounding the airport. Yet, it was ultimately the Daesh suicide attack that murdered 13 American military personnel. It also captures scenes of a coordinated American effort to disable, destroy, and completely smash-up all military equipment that was left behind, which was also under-reported at the time.
Throughout the film Bagram Airfield (which critics argue was prematurely de-commissioned and thus not able to relieve some of the pressure on the Kabul airport) is never mentioned. President Biden is never directly addressed either, but he is seen describing the American intervention in Afghanistan as a “success,” for obvious ironic effect.
Some Truthful Media
For a while, there was a bumper crop of documentaries shot by filmmakers embedded with American troops, of which perhaps the most prominent was Tim Hethrington and Sebastian Junger’s “Restrepo.” Some hoped to boost support for the troops, while others sought to undermine support for the wars they fought, by capturing the dangers they faced, but they all helped us understand what it was like to be deployed in harm’s way.If nothing else, “Escape from Kabul” puts viewers right there with the troops securing the airport. It also leaves no doubt that a great many at-risk coalition allies were left behind.
Unfortunately, Roberts’ passive approach to the Taliban interviews is questionable, but there is value in hearing the American soldiers’ accounts and perspectives.
For now, it is one of the clearest chronicles we have of those terrible days in late August, 2021, until a better documentary comes along. It currently streams on HBO Max.
