On August 15, 2021, the Afghan Taliban triumphantly rode back into Kabul 20 years after they had been driven out of power by the US and its allies in Afghanistan and the region.

The regime that had been imposed on the people of Afghanistan by the US following its invasion in the aftermath of 9/11 collapsed like a house of cards. By August 30, 2021, the last US troops had left, bringing to an end the longest American war and the sad saga of American military misadventure in Afghanistan.

The ill-planned US war in Afghanistan had caused thousands of casualties of American troops and troops of its allies, besides the loss of about $3 trillion to the American exchequer. In the process, hundreds of thousands of Afghans were killed or displaced. The war also caused enormous material destruction in Afghanistan.

The US misadventure in Afghanistan led to its biggest military debacle since its defeat in Vietnam. It was a sorry tale of American overreach in terms of its goals and objectives, flawed strategic planning that overemphasized the military to the neglect of political means for a successful outcome, abysmal ignorance of Afghan history and culture, and a crude attempt to impose alien cultural values on an extremely conservative society.

There were also inadequate consultations and coordination of policies with Pakistan and Iran, Afghanistan’s two most important regional neighbours. Above all, the American debacle brought into the limelight the limits of American power in bringing about national transformation in distant and culturally alien countries.

The original aims of the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, as publicly stated by president Bush in his statement of April 17, 2002, were basically threefold: to defeat and dismantle Al Qaeda, which had launched the 9/11 attacks; to impose a government of........

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