“We Were Told It Would Be Easy” – Colonel Stuart Tootal DSO OBE on the Truth of Afghanistan

Colonel Stuart Tootal DSO OBE commanded 3 PARA on the British Army’s first major combat tour of Helmand Province in 2006. What followed was not peacekeeping — it was a full-scale insurgency. In this episode of Speed. Aggression. Surprise. – The Untold Truth Behind the Story, Tom Petch sits down with one of the most honest and uncompromising commanders of the Afghanistan war. Tootal describes how British forces entered Helmand expecting a benign stabilisation mission - and within weeks found themselves fighting for survival in places like Sangin, Now Zad, and Musa Qala. He explains the catastrophic mismatch between political assumptions and battlefield reality, the failures of multinational command, and the brutal arithmetic of casualty evacuation under fire. This is not a sanitised account. Tootal speaks candidly about losing men, the impossible decisions commanders are forced to make, and the psychological burden of knowing that every helicopter launch risks a Black Hawk Down scale disaster. The conversation also turns to veterans - from the shocking treatment of wounded soldiers at Selly Oak Hospital to the long-term failures of pastoral care once the fighting stops. Tootal reflects on why he ultimately resigned from the Army, the controversy that followed, and what Afghanistan should have taught Britain about future wars. This is a rare, ground-truth account of modern warfare — from a man who lived it.