Mother of Kamloops soldier killed in Afghanistan horrified at Taliban takeover

“I was horrified… horrified,” Doyle’s Mother, Kathy Mitchell, tells CFJC Today. “I thought: ‘what did Erin accomplish while he was there?’”

The Taliban emerged in the 1990s after the conflict with the Soviet Union ended, and rule through a strict version of Islamist Law.

Since the spring, when the United States military began its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban has made significant gains. After taking several major cities, they entered the capital city, Kabul, on Sunday (Aug. 15). The aftermath was chaos.

“There had always been an understanding that the Taliban would be playing a role in some type of power-sharing government,” TRU Associate Professor of Politics Robert Hanlon explains. “There had been negotiations ongoing with them for several years. But I don’t think anyone had seen this coming so quickly, and that has caught the world by surprise.”

According to Mitchell, her son didn’t share many details of what he was doing in Afghanistan. However, she calls him a humanitarian and said he believed in the mission.

“I said to him one day ‘Erin, do you really think you’re making a difference here?’ His answer was ‘Mom, 2,000 little girls are going to school,’” Mitchell says. “You can’t argue with that.”

Hanlon says now that the Taliban has regained control of the country, Canada needs to make sure what was accomplished from 2001 until 2014 isn’t completely erased.

“I think that’s really the role that Canada and other countries will have to play at this time,” Hanlon says. “Making sure that we engage the Taliban and hold them to account because whether we agree with them or not, they’re now the government there. So how do we hold them accountable for ensuring the safety and livelihoods of the millions of people who live there?”

Mitchell used to send candy to Erin, so he could hand it out to the Afghan children he encountered. That’s one reason she’s worried – as many of those kids have grown up free from Taliban rule.

“It seems like it’s gone back twenty years,” Mitchell says. “There’s a whole generation that has had their freedom. I wonder how they’ll cope?”

Thirteen years after his death, the pain has dulled some. but Mitchell says there’s still an empty chair. However, she’s comforted by some of the conversations she had with Erin before he shipped out.

“Every tour was the same,” Mitchell says. “‘Mom, just remember that if something happens to me, I’m doing exactly what I want to do,’” he would tell her.

“How many of us can say that?”

by Adam Donnelly

Mother of Kamloops soldier killed in Afghanistan horrified at Taliban takeover

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