They're back

 Yesterday, Sunday 15th August, the Taliban walked into power in the Afghan capital Kabul. Its president fled, and no resistance was offered by government forces. In the end, the government, sponsored and supported by the US and NATO, turned out to be as strong as a freshly-boiled strand of spaghetti. Spineless, a paper tiger. A failure of US foreign policy.

The Americans did well to boot the Taliban out of power in 2001. It had to be done. It is a pity that they did not stop to think about the consequences of that military victory, as it was by then. The US did not anticipate what they would have to do post-Taliban. Change management involves knowledge of the start-point of your enterprise, and knowledge of your end-point. Where do you want the enterprise you are changing to end up. The Americans did not have a clue. They went into Afghanistan in a blind rage, which is understandable after 3,000 innocent people were killed in the Twin Towers attacks of 9/11. They tried the same in Eye-rack, booting out that odious man Saddam Hussein.

Regime change. Winning the hearts and minds of the people. If you want to do that, you got to know the hearts and minds of the people. You have to understand them, their history, their culture, religion and background. Find out what their aspirations are for the future, short-, medium- and longterm. Only then can you start to work towards building a new government structure for a country. 

It was not done for Afghanistan. Hundreds and thousands of servicemen, who volunteered to serve their country, laid down their life for Afghanistan. And Iraq. Thinking they were helping to build a better place. But the politicians that sent them there let them down, for not having a plan to do so. 

They are back, the Taliban. The world has changed since 2001. Let's hope that Afghanistan has, after all, become a better place. Only time will tell.