The central failure of Western understanding was of Afghan society and power structures. Western establishments deluded themselves that they were creating security forces for a functioning government. The melting away of those security forces and the almost-unopposed transfers of power to the Taliban in carefully-staged meetings with each of the regional tribal chiefs now show conclusively that the government ceased to function some time ago: maybe when the US struck its deal with the Taliban, maybe earlier. Maybe it never functioned effectively at all. From the report linked by etudiant, and the credibility-destroying revelation from Ben Wallace that he was trying to get other countries to help the UK stay in Afghanistan, it seems we were deluding ourselves that it was still functioning just days ago.
Last edited by Easy Street; 15th Aug 2021 at 19:35.