Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s new memoir lays bare a painful picture of the West’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 after twenty years of occupation and questions the futility of military interventions for nation-building.

In the book titled “On My Watch,” published in October 2025, Stoltenberg offers a candid account that led to the messy withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan  describing it as reminiscent of the  US debacle and withdrawal from Vietnam in the 70’s.

“It was painful to leave, but there is nothing to indicate that we would have achieved  any more by staying in Afghanistan  for another twenty years. The US and NATO had lost the war. The defeat was a fact,” he candidly admitted .

Stoltenberg who served as NATO chief from 2014 till 2024 paints a picture of a helpless Europe, unable to save its local staff, and  refers to  frustrations by some European leaders who lamented the decision by the US not to consult them over the decision to hastily withdraw from Afghanistan.

“The US had negotiated all of NATO’s presence in Afghanistan without the NATO allies being included in the negotiations. This caused some irritation and concern among other allies. Even the Afghan government had been excluded from the proceedings,” noted Stoltenberg,  a former Norwegian prime minister .

Trump first assumed the presidency in January 2017 and held office until 2021 when Joe Biden took over. Trump had made a deal with the Taliban in early 2020 which stipulated that all foreign soldiers would leave Afghanistan by the first of May 2021

In return the Taliban would stop their attacks on the international forces before the withdrawal. But Trump’s first term ended without completing a full withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Taliban fighters constantly crossed the border to  Pakistan to rest and organise. They had a safe haven there,” he noted.

Humiliation Of The West

Germany and the UK  opposed any unconditional withdrawal. An agitated then Italian prime minister  Mario Draghi  said “maybe  we should call it what it is, a defeat.” Former UK prime minister Theresa May  described the chaotic withdrawal as “the worst  humiliation  for NATO  and the West in several decades.”

Stoltenberg  described the final days before the NATO withdrawal as “a Saigon moment.” 

"In the final days of the Vietnam war panic stricken people had clung to the helicopters that took off from the roof of  the American embassy in South Vietnam’s capital Saigon. Now everyone  would rush for the exit in Kabul too,” said Stoltenberg.

He admitted the West had failed miserably to build  a democratic state in Afghanistan. “What should have been a strong and stable state simply collapsed as a house of cards.”

Capitulation to Taliban

Having worked with Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, he consistently presents the United States as the central conductor and key decision-maker. After holding a meeting with top NATO officials at his home in Brussels in May 2020, Stoltenberg writes that  “we were informed that Trump’s patience had run out. He wanted a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. No matter the cost and as fast as possible.”

Afghanistan had become an example of what an ever-increasing number of Americans were referring to as endless wars. The Taliban - not the US and NATO - would come to represent the strongest military might in Afghanistan, Stoltenberg said in a candid admission. In a phone conversation  with Stoltenberg after the withdrawal announcement, then Afghan President Asraf Ghani expressed his  disappointment and gave the phone to his vice-president  Amrullah Saleh  who thundered that “We have been abandoned. Jihad has defeated NATO.”

About lessons learnt, Stoltenberg  opines that in  the event of future military operations beyond NATO’s borders “the objective will have to be clearly defined. And above all else, we will have to be realistic about what is possible to achieve.”

This 410-page book describes the effort to keep NATO united, and addresses other key issues such as the war in Ukraine, ties with Russia and China, and cooperation with world leaders and NATO’s enlargement to include Finland and Sweden. Stoltenberg is the current finance minister of Norway and designated chair of the Munich Security Conference.

(The author is an Indian journalist who is a long time resident in Brussels and has been covering European and EU affairs for the past 40 years. Views expressed are personal . He can be reached at nawab_khan@hotmail.com X: @NawabKhan10)