All headlines now are focused on Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul. Most of these are bagged by the quest or conquest of a resurgent Taliban to capture the nation. While they controlled over 80 per cent of rural areas and critical supply lines early on, as the US quietly vacated Bagram Airbase at night, what surprises the analysts and observers is the extraordinary speed at which the Taliban has advanced. Another surprise was the helpless and leaderless fall of Afghan security forces, who are said to be nearly four times in size, with far superior training and high-tech equipment made available or left behind by the Americans over the past two decades.
Ironically, with the fall of the terrain to Taliban, not only a large number of forces have surrendered to the ferocious onslaught of the feared Taliban or fled to neighbouring countries, but this has also provided them with supplies of arms and ammunition, as well as the released Taliban fighters held in jails, thereby restoring and adding to their physical strength.