When the Taliban recaptured Kabul, and with it the nation from which it had been forced out 20 years earlier, there was in some corners a feeble but desperate hope that this would be a more moderate regime than it had been before the United States invaded in 2001.
In anticipation of what would become a demoralising and chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan three years ago, there were voices within the Islamist militant group who tried to persuade the watching world that a so-called 'Taliban 2.0' would leave the ultra-conservatism of its past and seek legitimacy in formal government.
