Thank you for that. I appreciate that.
It seems to me that the intelligence and advice you got as ambassador wasn't as accurate as it should have been, because from afar, at the other end of the world here, it was clear to many of us in July that Kabul was going to fall. From just reading the standard suite of quotidian publications like The New York Times, it was pretty clear what was happening. Hence, statements and letters that were being written by the opposition urgently calling on the government to begin an immediate evacuation were issued several times in June and July of that year.
I just make that general point.
Is it safe to say that the real, urgent evacuation efforts began around or after August 12? When you look at the data, approximately 850 people were evacuated by Canada leading up to August 16, and then suddenly between August 15 and August 29, some 2,800 people were evacuated. Clearly, evacuation efforts significantly increased after the fall of Kabul on August 15.
Was that a result of the government being in caretaker mode, or was that a result of the fall of Kabul and the urgency that the fall of Kabul triggered amongst staff?