Pretty simple question: how was the Taliban able to re-take Afghanistan? After over a decade of American military presence, how was the Taliban even able to survive? How/why did the people of Afghanistan not fight back / prevent the Taliban from taking over?
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Alternative take. No invading force has ever won a land war in Afghanistan. From Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan has been a disaster for any military that goes into it and tried to occupy. It is less of a country than it is a collection of largely autonomous ethnic and tribal regions. The terrain is mountainous and the climate is harsh. When invaded the locals simply melt into the mountains and engage in guerrilla warfare until the invading armies either run out of resources or will. When they finally leave, the locals reassert control and do so along largely ethnic lines, which are often far more powerful than any sense of Afghan national identity.
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