Three takeaways from the Taliban's return to Kabul

Photo by nasim dadfar on Unsplash

Three things emerge from accounts of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan: It was largely bloodless in recent months, being executed mainly through skilled negotiations and deal-making with different elders of different tribes. Second, most Afghans, including their security forces, do not seem to have felt that the Afghan government and system of the past 20 years was worth fighting for. Third, a large part of the shock and horror being expressed from western capitals is about the “humiliation of the West”.

All of these points are as troubling as they are telling.

First, one has to wonder why the Afghan government-staunchly backed until very recently by the United States with money and military support-was unable to cut the very deals that the Taliban managed and to negotiate strategically with tribal elders. Unlike successive US-backed governments in Kabul, the Taliban were not in power and therefore, had little patronage to confer. And while the Talib…