The mistakes made by British and American forces in Afghanistan are brought to light in a new book by former ITN presenter Sandy Gall. The Kent journalist and author spoke to Chris Price.

With its vast poppy-covered fields set against a background of rocky mountains and stone houses, Afghanistan is tranquil and quiet.

These fleeting moments of calm are familiar to former ITN presenter Sandy Gall, but as he looks deeper, he can see the strain on the faces of the farmers who tend their crops around him.

The land, of course, is once again the battleground for foreign powers to fight over, as it has been since the days of Alexander the Great. Yet the war between NATO forces and the Taliban since 2001 has been riddled with mistakes. These are analysed by Kent-based journalist and author Sandy in his new book War Against the Taliban: Why It All Went Wrong in Afghanistan.

“The conclusion I come to is the Iraq War,” said the former newsreader, who has visited the country for each of the past 20 years.

“Afghanistan started after 9/11 – we were bombing in October and the invasion was more or less simultaneous. Then when Iraq came along in late 2003, the preparations for it absorbed all American and British attention and so little resources were diverted to Afghanistan.

“There are other reasons – corruption in the Afghan government and our faulty intelligence. We didn’t realise the Taliban were in Pakistan. All these reasons were why we took our eye off the ball.”

The book took two-and-a-half years to write and Sandy’s research took him from the Middle East to Washington and New York. His main research year was 2010, when he visited Afghanistan three times. The book starts with the Scot’s trip to Afghanistan in 1984, during the war with the Soviet Union.

“I thought the Afghans were very brave,” said Sandy, 84, who joined ITN as a foreign correspondent in 1963. “They are very independent people. I admire the Afghans in many ways for their independence of spirit. They won’t lie down to foreign invaders.

“You make friends and you get to know the country. It is very beautiful. They have had such a bad time. They had a war with the Russians and then a communist coup and then a civil war, followed by the Taliban. They have had a miserable time and my sympathy is with them.”

Sandy, who was one of the original staff on News at Ten in 1967, has been back to Afghanistan so many times because of his work with his charity, Sandy Gall’s Afghanistan Appeal. It has helped provide artificial limbs and walking aids for more than 20,000 people, and physiotherapy for more than 50,000 people since it was set up in 1986. It is run by his wife Eleanor from their home in Penshurst, near Tunbridge Wells, where they have lived since the 1950s.

In his book, Sandy covers systematic failure within the MOD, equipment shortages, and why the post-invasion Afghan government has allowed the Taliban to regain strength. Yet despite these failings, he still believes Afghanistan can become a peaceful country once again.

“Most Afghans would like peace,” he said.

“They would like to express their own views. They want to be left to get on with their own lives. That has been possible in the past. The nation was peaceful when the king was on the throne through the 1930s through to the early 1970s.

“Many Afghans look back to that as their best time. There is always hope. Look at Northern Ireland. You thought that could never be saved, and it has,” he added.

War Against the Taliban: Why It All Went Wrong in Afghanistan by Sandy Gall is published by Bloomsbury and costs £20.