It wasn’t just Joe Biden who was astonished by the Taliban’s rapid success. I’ve spoken to Taliban fighters who say that even they have been amazed. When I reported on CNN last week that US security officials thought Kabul might be surrounded in 30 days, I thought this was a vast exaggeration. I don’t know anyone who didn’t think the same. So yes, we absolutely should ask how US security services got this so wrong. But we should remember that even the Taliban were shocked at just how easy it has been for them…

Beauty salons have sprung up in Kabul in recent years. Their owners now seem understandably nervous. Adverts featuring uncovered women have been painted over, not because of Taliban orders, but because people fear what might happen next. I was walking with a Taliban soldier on Monday and passed a man smoking a cigarette on the street. I asked: ‘Will that be okay now? Will you let people smoke? Will men have to grow their beards?’ ‘It’s all fine,’ he replied. ‘Sharia law will be implemented only gradually.’ The Taliban leaders say they’ve changed from the 1990s, learnt from their mistakes and want to be part of the international community. But from spending time with Taliban troops on the streets (as opposed to the higher echelons in Doha), it’s clear their fundamentalism hasn’t changed at all. I first interviewed some of their members two years ago and ended up walking behind one of the men, such was the protocol. I went away thinking that two decades of war has done nothing to weaken the Taliban’s resolve or their ideology.