James Glancy is “of the 9/11 era. There is a big difference in the experience of Serving in the Royal Marines or the military in the 90s to the post 2001 era…I was in Afghanistan within two months of passing out…I did three Troop Commands on combat operations on the ground. It was an amazing 10 years.”

When he left “I missed the intensity of operations so much, it’s without doubt one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life and I just loved being at war, it sounds a strange thing to say but I loved it. I loved being with the lads, I loved just doing something that I felt at the time was the right thing to do and working with the best possible people.” War is “...way less complex…It’s just the sense of purpose, everything is really black and white…everything’s done for you in the military…”

James eventually found some upsides to Civvy Street “Being independent of a military mindset, thinking for yourself, taking your own opportunities…your own risks…an incredibly important thing in life. I’m out the other side of that transition but there were 3 to 4 years that were…more challenging than you could ever realise, especially after those Afghan years.”

James finally returned as a film-maker feeling there was a story to be told “Very few people got to actually understand the Afghan people, the real structure of how the tribes work and who they were…” He provides insight into Afghanistan witnessed at a very particular moment in history, “Even though the full withdrawal hadn’t been announced…the Doha Agreement by Trump made it very clear…My view was, we don’t have forever to make a film where we can travel freely around the country because I think the Taliban will very quickly start taking over…I obviously didn’t predict how quickly it would fall.”

Watch the trailer of Afganistan on YouTube

Did you serve in Afghanistan or Iraq?

In order to better understand the wellbeing of Afghanistan & Iraq Veterans with which we work, we're asking you to answer a few short questions.

If you’re a member of the Armed Forces community and need support with your mental health, Op Courage can help.

Or you could phone the Combat Stress Helpline on: 0800 138 1619


Company of Makers exists to support veterans and their families who are struggling on civvy street no matter how long ago they left the armed forces.

We do this by running a programme of Podcasts | Talks | Workshops.

Company of Makers are trying to reach, and better understand, all members of the armed forces community who are also gamers. We’re especially interested in those that have served in Afganistan & Iraq.

To find out more contact us.

Sir Laurie Bristow was central to the military withdrawal in 2021, there’s nobody better placed to give us the inside story than the last British ambassador in Afghanistan. He takes us through the days and hours counting down, “15th August we started the day with President Ghani behind his desk broadcasting to the nation…roughly 2.30pm” He’s “left the country…a few hours later you’ve got the Taliban behind that desk…taking their selfies.”

Laurie shares his views on the Doha Agreement and tries to make sense of what happened and why, “How was it that we invested so many lives, so much money, so much political capital and the results were so lamentable?”

He describes the evacuation “…panic doesn’t even begin to cover it…I struggle to find the words…Miles…of desperate people…” Among them “there are certainly Taliban…extreme violence going on…children, old people trampled in the crush…dead children being pulled out of those crowds…extreme heat…a Covid wave…Somehow…you’ve got to find, identify, pull out the people who qualify for evacuation.”

“We train these young men and women for combat, this is harder…By the 15th there were not enough soldiers to control the airport…It all becomes suddenly very very real, the government has collapsed, the Taliban are back in charge…The next thing you see is people falling off the plane…There were moments where we didn’t know if we would get out alive.”

Sir Laurie recognises the “incredible job that the military…the civilians working alongside them did; and the fact that we got out over 15,000 people…What I saw of the performance of our soldiers and our civilians was really quite humbling…The youngest of our ‘sunburnt young soldiers’ were just 18 years old.”

Did you serve in Afghanistan or Iraq?

In order to better understand the wellbeing of Afghanistan & Iraq Veterans with which we work, we're asking you to answer a few short questions.

If you’re a member of the Armed Forces community and need support with your mental health, Op Courage can help.

Or you could phone the Combat Stress Helpline on: 0800 138 1619


Company of Makers exists to support veterans and their families who are struggling on civvy street no matter how long ago they left the armed forces.

We do this by running a programme of Podcasts | Talks | Workshops.

Company of Makers are trying to reach, and better understand, all members of the armed forces community who are also gamers. We’re especially interested in those that have served in Afganistan & Iraq.

To find out more contact us.

Oliver Lee resigned over the Marine A controversy and epitomises moral courage. He took over command of 45 Commando in 2009 as it came back from Afghanistan. Knowing they’d return in 2011 and to fulfil his vision of “Less violence, more engagement with people and culture… It’s about Afghans before anybody else” he ensured that the entire unit “all played a part in the production of the plan…What I was trying to do was to persuade young hard charging Royal Marines, whose last experience was Sangin, to operate in an extremely different way.”

The unit distilled their operational design into 10 principles such as “Always: Treat Afghans with dignity, use the minimum possible force, think clearly even when angry and afraid, always place Afghans first…”

During the tour these values “were lived by every day…What was achieved was remarkable…an 86% reduction in violence…That led to mission success which was a transfer to Afghan lead security authority 12-18 months ahead of the plan…There was not a single piece of collateral damage inflicted by us. There was not a single civilian casualty caused by us and we brought everybody home alive” something “I never thought even possible. In bandit country we did 7600 patrols over that six months and everybody came home alive…It was a remarkable tour.”

However, for the last three weeks, Oliver's command increased to include that of Marine A’s unit “Very sadly, it was during that three weeks that Marine A committed his battlefield atrocity so it was during the period of my command, which I therefore felt I had to carry some responsibility for even though I didn’t know him, I didn’t know that unit, I hadn’t prepared them, I hadn’t led them for the vast majority of the tour. Leadership is about carrying responsibility.” Oliver shares his unique perspective on this as well as the action he took next.

“Moral Courage…Above all, it’s about doing the right thing.”

Oliver Lee delivering a speech on a beach to 45 Commando's before their deployment to Afghanistan and Oliver talking to Channel 4 News about Marine A.

Did you serve in Afghanistan or Iraq?

In order to better understand the wellbeing of Afghanistan & Iraq Veterans with which we work, we're asking you to answer a few short questions.

If you’re a member of the Armed Forces community and need support with your mental health, Op Courage can help.

Or you could phone the Combat Stress Helpline on: 0800 138 1619


Company of Makers exists to support veterans and their families who are struggling on civvy street no matter how long ago they left the armed forces.

We do this by running a programme of Podcasts | Talks | Workshops.

Company of Makers are trying to reach, and better understand, all members of the armed forces community who are also gamers. We’re especially interested in those that have served in Afganistan & Iraq.

To find out more contact us.