New Delhi, Nov. 20 -- Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's new memoir lays bare a painful picture of the West's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 after twenty years of occupation and questions the futility of military interventions for nation-building.

In the book titled "On My Watch," published in October 2025, Stoltenberg offers a candid account that led to the messy withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan describing it as reminiscent of the US debacle and withdrawal from Vietnam in the 70's.

"It was painful to leave, but there is nothing to indicate that we would have achieved any more by staying in Afghanistan for another twenty years. The US and NATO had lost the war. The defeat was a fact...