For many Americans, the lasting image of nation’s 20-year war in Afghanistan is of hundreds of Afghans holding onto or trying to get onto a military airplane, leaving the country as the Taliban was taking over. A war that was considered America’s “good war” to fight the oppressive Taliban regime that housed Al Qaeda terrorists, turned into what seemed like a never-ending quagmire.

Baktash Ahadi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1981. His family left during the Soviet invasion in 1984, eventually moving to Carlisle here in Pennsylvania.

Today, Ahadi is an award-winning filmmaker, whose latest documentary Retrograde captures the last nine months of the war in Afghanistan.

On The Spark Wednesday, Ahadi described how the failed Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s led to the fall of the Soviet Union, but it also had repercussions,"A devastating thing happened as Afghanistan was forgotten by the world. It no longer had relevance, so to speak, in the West. Well, that was a mistake because there became a power vacuum. And all those Mujahideen who had weapons started fighting amongst themselves and created chaos and civil war in the country. And that's where the Taliban emerged. The Taliban didn't offer too many good things for Afghanistan. And in fact, it kept Afghanistan in the dark. And from that place is where al Qaeda came. And that's where the United States had to reengage Afghanistan because the tragic events of 9/11 were orchestrated from Afghanistan. And when President Bush made a phone call to the Taliban to say, we don't want anything to do with you or your country, we just want Al Qaida. The Taliban's response to President Bush was, well, if you want a guest in our home country, you're going to have to go through us. And that's what led the United States into Afghanistan."

Ahadi said that one of the big takeaways from the film is Afghans, especially those who were helping the U.S. felt betrayed by the American withdrawal in August of 2021,"Let's say July of 2021, when the collapse happened in August of 2021. If you ask Afghans in July what they thought was going to happen, I don't think any of them would have told you that the United States would have disengaged and the Taliban would have swept across the country within three weeks and captured the entire country, and that the chaos at the airport and all the deaths at the airport and all the families that were broken apart, I don't think any of them, I don't think anybody could have predicted that. I mean, the images that we that we have of that time will stay with us forever."

Many have blamed the Biden Administration for the chaotic exit from Afghanistan,"I think, honestly, it was a lack of political will by President Biden and his administration. I think many presidents were always trying to figure out how to get about get out of Afghanistan or they used Afghanistan as a distraction. But I don't think anybody took Afghanistan in terms of how to really, really, really engage that country seriously. And what do I mean? I mean, specifically in terms of a long-term approach. The reason why is this is one of my mentors and one of the subject matter experts on Afghanistan, Ambassador Ron Neumann, said this once and I'll use this and I'll quote him. He said, "Afghanistan wasn't one war, it was 20 different wars." What he meant to say and what that means is depending on who was in charge, whether it was the ministry, was the Department of Defense, secretary of defense, secretary of state. There were many people that would come into Afghanistan and leave after one year. So there was no continuous plan for the country."

Ahadi also pointed out that there has been a high suicide rate amongst Americans soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and that some believe their efforts were in vain.

The film will be screened at the Carlisle Theatre Thursday night at 7, as part of Dickinson College’s Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Watch the Retrograde trailer here.

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