Episode 2

In 2006, five years in to the war against the Taliban, the British army found that it was facing military disaster in Afghanistan. In Helmand province, its troops were fighting an implacable and well-armed enemy that seemed impossible to defeat. As the death toll mounted, the British public began to lose faith in the campaign and question whether the sacrifice was necessary. The episode tells the story of the British attempts to extricate itself from the conflict, and asks whether the country will ever have the desire to put its troops into such battles again.