It Didn’t Have to End This Way  

But nothing prepared him for the violent scenes and mass hysteria the world has witnessed over the past two weeks. Now, as the positions he helped secure nearly two decades ago have collapsed, he looks back with no little sense of sorrow for the Afghan people, and more than a little fear of what it means for Western security.

“We’re facing a terrorist threat coming out of Afghanistan that’s even greater than the terrorist threat before 9/11,” Colonel Kemp tells Mishpacha. “Jihadists around the world are cheering. Pakistani president Arif Alvi is celebrating — and he should be, because Pakistan has significantly funded the Taliban while at the same time receiving funds from the US and Britain. In Gaza they’re celebrating. All the global terror infrastructures are being reenergized and reinvigorated, their recruitment boosted and inspired. ISIS and al-Qaeda — which have far from disappeared and were actually fighting alongside the Taliban in recent battles — are now operating even more freely than before 9/11, because they know they no longer need to fear Western intervention. That, unfortunately, is history.”

Colonel Kemp is no armchair doomsday prophet. He’s spent the majority of his 62 years fighting terrorism and insurgency with boots on the ground, commanding British troops on the front lines of some of the world’s toughest hot spots, including Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, and Northern Ireland. Since his retirement from active military, he provides strategic consultancy services on security, intelligence, counterterrorism and defense, and is a popular media commentator as well.

Now, he says, the entire world has become vastly more dangerous. And that’s because there is a wide net of winners in addition to the Taliban.