As troops prepare to withdraw from the war-torn country, readers reflect on western nations’ involvement and legacy
Your editorial (15 April) asserts that the Taliban were quick to take over when the Russians left. That is simply not true; it actually took seven years, from the end of Soviet combat operations in 1989 to the capture of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996. The crucial event was the withdrawal of Russian subsidies to the Najibullah regime in 1992.
It took a further two years for that regime to collapse, and two years more of chaos and intra-mujahideen fighting to create the void into which the Taliban stepped. This all matters because there was nothing inevitable about the Taliban’s takeover in 1996 and neither is there now.
