Ultimately, today's historic Parliamentary debate on Afghanistan won't change a thing.
Boris Johnson disappeared after a couple of hours, and held no vote for MPs who'd been recalled from their summer break.
But with the Commons packed for the first time in 17 months, today's session was a chance for MPs - many of them veterans of war - to vent their fury about the catastrophe in Kabul.
The Taliban swept in while the PM and Foreign Secretary were both on holiday, undoing a 20-year military campaign that cost 457 British troops' lives.
Boris Johnson today insisted Britain would honour its "enduring commitment" to Afghans. But he was blasted by a string of Tories, along with figures from Labour, the church and the security services.
So was Joe Biden, the US President who was condemned from both sides after trying to pin the blame on the Afghan Army.
Debates ran for several hours in the Commons and the Lords - so here's a roundup of the most powerful moments so far in today's mammoth session.
Keir Starmer
In a brutal speech, Labour’s leader accused Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab of a "dereliction of duty" by being on holiday as Kabul fell.
Keir Starmer taunted the pair as he told MPs: "You cannot co-ordinate an international response from the beach."
And he criticised Mr Johnson for not visiting Afghanistan since he became Prime Minister - pointing out his last visit while foreign secretary was a notorious bid to avoid a vote on Heathrow.
He told the Commons: "Hundreds of thousands of British people have flown to Afghanistan to serve - the Prime Minister flew to avoid public service."
Labour ’s leader said "the Prime Minister's judgement on Afghanistan has been appalling", and while "nobody believes Britain and our allies could have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely", the US agreement to withdraw was made in February 2020.
”The lack of planning is unforgivable and the Prime Minister bears a heavy responsibility. He was in a position to lead - but he didn’t,” he said.
He savaged the Tories' aid cuts to the region last year which were "short sighted, small minded and a threat to security." "Why was the PM so careless? Why did he fail to lead?" he declared.
Tom Tugendhat
Ex-solider Tom Tugendhat was applauded for a moving Commons speech as he recalled the loss of war - and savaged Joe Biden.
"Like many veterans, this last week has been one that has seen me struggle through anger, grief and rage,” he said.
The Tory MP, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had watched ”good men go into the earth" only for the Afghan army to be blamed by the US President.
“To see their commander in chief call into the question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran is shameful," Mr Tugendhat said.
“Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have.”
He left MPs with another image - “a man whose name I never knew, carrying a child who had died hours earlier – carrying this child into our fire base and begging for help.
“There was nothing we could do. It was over. This is what defeat looks like when you no longer have the choice of how to help.
“This doesn’t need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it.”
Theresa May
The former Prime Minister savaged Boris Johnson over the Afghanistan crisis, telling her successor it represents a "major setback for British foreign policy".
In a damning speech, the ex-Tory leader hit out over the snap withdrawal of troops.
“The politicians sent them there, the politicians decided to withdraw, the politicians must be responsible for the consequences,” she said.
She added: “This has been a major setback for British foreign policy. We boast about Global Britain - but where is Global Britain on the streets of Kabul?," said Mrs May.
“A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not our words.”
Mrs May said it was "incomprehensible and worrying" that the UK was not able to bring together a solution between nations.
"Was our intelligence really so poor? Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge of the position on the ground so inadequate?
“Or did we just feel we had to follow the US and hope on a wing and a prayer that it would be all right on the night," she said.
Justin Welby
Speaking during a parallel debate in the Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: "The failure we face today is not military or diplomatic... it is political."
And he urged more generosity in the scheme to accept 20,000 Afghan refugees, but only over several years.
He added: "This is about morals not numbers. Will the Government confirm that their policy will reflect moral obligation and not be controlled by numbers?"
He went on: "This is a very bad time, especially for so many in Afghanistan and for those who served there.
"It is a time for prayerful humility and for us to display generosity, virtue and courage. Rebuilding our reputation in such ways will give many others hope as well."
Lisa Nandy
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy launched into a searing speech as she wrapped up the debate for Labour, accusing the Government of "desperate” attacks on the Opposition and asking the PM to apologise.
She said: “They have been warned and warned and warned about the consequences by members on all sides of this House, and they have ignored us, they have ignored their own backbenchers and they have abandoned the people of Afghanistan.
“It’s a moment of shame and they should apologise.”
She told Boris Johnson, as he entered the Commons: "The decision to withdraw troops did not need to end like this.
"We could have withdrawn with care, planning and redoubled effort.
"The alternative to chaotic exit is not endless war, as he's tried to argue, but a patient, tireless pursuit of peace."
Tobias Ellwood
The ex-Army serviceman raised the plight of his brother, killed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Bali in 2002, as he condemned the “humiliating strategic defeat for the West” and said “we should never have left”.
He said: "It is with utter disbelief seeing us make such an operational and strategic blunder by retreating at this time. A decision that's already triggering a humanitarian disaster, a migrant crisis not seen since the Second World War and a cultural change in rights to women, and once again turning Afghanistan into a breeding ground for terrorism."
"I'm sorry there's no vote here today because I believe the Government would not have the support of the House... The future's very much more unpredictable because of our actions."
Mr Ellwood called for an independent inquiry - but his plea was rebuffed by Boris Johnson.
Dan Jarvis
The Labour MP for Barnsley Central, who served in the British armed forces in Afghanistan, also blasted President Biden for his “distasteful and dishonouring” blaming of the Afghan armed forces.
"These past 20 years have been a struggle for peace,” he said.
“We tried to break the cycle of war, to give hope to women and girls, we tried to give the Afghans a different life, one of hope and one of opportunity.
“But the catastrophic failure of international political leadership, and the brutality of the Taliban has snatched all of that away from them."
He added: "Many of us who served in Afghanistan have a deep bond of affection for the Afghan people, and I had the honour of serving alongside them in Helmand.
“We trained together, fought together, and in some cases we died together. They were our brothers in arms.
“But I shudder to think where those men are now, many will be dead, others I know now consider themselves to be dead men walking.
“Where were we in their hour of need? We were nowhere, and that is shameful, and it will have a very long-lasting impact on Britain's reputation right around the world."
Eliza Manningham-Buller
Speaking in the Lords, the former MI5 chief warned of more terror attacks against the West after the fall of Afghanistan.
The withdrawal of US and coalition forces from the country after two decades will "excite, encourage and spur terrorists" as well as creating a "safe space" for extremists, she said.
She added: "I wish I could end on a more positive note and may be my pessimism is misjudged, but I expect more terrorism directed against the West based on extreme Islamist ideology."
Chris Bryant
The long-serving Labour MP said the UK should've said to the US "hang on, stop, think, wait, put in place a proper plan" and Boris Johnson "should be ashamed of himself".
"I'm ashamed that our silence basically endorsed Trump's plan last year, and that our silence now - apart from one notable exception in the form of the Defence Secretary - has effectively enabled Biden to get away with some of the most shameful comments ever from an American President."
He added: “I feel ashamed today, more ashamed than I can remember in any foreign policy debate in my 20 years in this house.
“It’s been the most sudden and catastrophic collapse of a foreign and military policy objective of the UK since Suez.
“We’ve managed to humiliate ourselves. We have shamed our politics and our way of doing business. We have trailed the British flag and frankly our own honour in the dirt and in the mud.”
Owen Paterson
In his first speech since his wife’s suicide, former Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson described allied forces' withdrawal from Afghanistan as the " UK's biggest humiliation since Suez" and the US' "biggest humiliation since Saigon"
“The Afghan army has fought incredibly bravely," he went on.
“[Biden] could have carried on with 4,500 American troops and sophisticated air support, and that sends a message to every Afghan army unit that if they were in real trouble, they could call up American support. When it was announced they were going it sent a real message to the Taliban, ‘you’re safe boys, take every village, take every town, because the American Air Force is not coming after you’.
“So, it is frankly shameful that the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, cannot face questions from his own hostile press core, and attack the Afghan army for cowardice.”
It was the North Shropshire MP's first speech in the Commons since losing his wife Rose to suicide last year.
Lord Dannatt
Former Army chief Lord Dannatt said “the manner and timing of the Afghan collapse” was a direct result of the the decision by US President Joe Biden to pull out American forces by the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
He said: “The people had a glimpse of a better life, but that has been torn away.
“With US forces withdrawing, other Nato allies, including ourselves, had no option but to leave too.”
He added: “I strongly believe the whole campaign in Afghanistan should be the subject of a public inquiry.”
While ruling out “another expensive and drawn out” inquiry like that seen into the Iraq War led by Sir John Chilcot, Lord Dannatt called for it to be convened “in the coming months”.
He added: “Some may say such an inquiry is not needed but I am convinced that it is and focusing particularly on our strategic decision-making at both the political and senior military levels and crucially their interface.”
Johnny Mercer
Tory MP and former soldier Johnny Mercer, who did three tours of Afghanistan, said Boris Johnson was "consistently failing" veterans struggling with mental health issues.
The Plymouth Moor View MP told MPs: “We are not trained to lose and we are not trained for ministers to, in a way, choose to be defeated by the Taliban.
“Was it all for nothing? Of course it wasn’t for nothing and we have to get away from this narrative. Whether we like it or not for a period of time Afghans – the average age in Afghanistan is 18 years old – they will have experienced a freedom and privileges that we enjoy here and no one will ever take that away from them.”
He added: "I must say to the House with a heavy heart the Prime Minister has consistently failed to honour what he said he would do when he was trying to become Prime Minister."
The ex Veterans Minister, who resigned earlier this year, said the UK was "going to see a bow wave of mental health challenges" among soldiers.
“The Prime Minister must not wriggle out of his commitments on this issue," he said. "The Office for Veterans Affairs is nothing like it was designed to be and he knows that. The paltry £5m funding slashed after less than a year, the lack of staff, not even an office to work from, even today the brilliant staff of the Office for Veterans Affairs simply cannot cope with the scale of the demand.”
Alicia Kearns
Tory MP Alicia Kearns begged Brits to open their homes and spare rooms to Afghan refugees as the foreign affairs disaster as a “wholly preventable tragedy”.
“Once we get these people out we must ensure that refugee families are welcomed to our country so that they can build the lives they never asked for," the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton said. "The kindness of the British people is great.”
She said councils in her constituency have said they “would like to take as many refugees as they can”, and that the Ministry of Defence is working with her to identify housing stock in her constituency.
“But I call for the Government to consider creating an initiative that allows British nationals to open their homes, their spare bedrooms, their second homes, to these Afghans, similar to the private sponsorship route that already exists, because the British people want to step up and help,” she said.
Stella Creasy
Prominent Labour backbencher Stella Creasy made an urgent appeal for support for Afghan women, warning Boris Johnson: "Those Afghan women who are doctors, who are judges, who are politicians, need us to do more than wring our hands.
"We've already heard that Afghan girls are being banned from school and forced into marriages.
"As the quote is 'the Taliban talks nice during the day and disappears people at night.
"We must also say, this is not Islam. Islam is not the reason why people are clinging to planes to save their lives, that is brutalism and terrorism."
