A year ago today, the Taliban took over Kabul and now are in charge of pretty much the whole of Afghanistan, complete with gun-toting teenage militias and Virtues and Vice police. The surprise was the speed and ease with which the Taliban took huge swathes of the country last year — though they did so with quite a bit of help from their friends in the Pakistan military and intelligence services.
On August 13 last year, the US, Britain and the allies accelerated their rescue mission for vital personnel and helpers in Kabul. It was an unedifying scramble — a cut-and-run job in keeping with the mishmash of policy and strategy that had taken the US and allies like the UK to Afghanistan in 2001.
