According to some White House sources speaking with the Associated Press this week, there’s a pressing question on the minds of many analysts observing the American bug-out from Afghanistan. Who could have foreseen how rapidly and brutally the Taliban would retake nearly the entire country? Apparently not President Biden or his military advisers. They had been banking on a “better behaved Taliban” that would conform more closely to international norms in the hopes of gaining international respect and aid. Looking at the reports coming out of the few news outlets still able to safely operate inside the country, those plans simply aren’t panning out at all. Given their behavior over the past twenty years, how could anyone not see this coming?

Taliban conquests in Afghanistan are challenging the Biden administration’s hopes that a desire for international respect — and for international aid and cash — may moderate the fundamentalist militia’s worst behaviors when the U.S. ends its war there.

Showing little interest in a diplomatic settlement, Taliban commanders have sped up their battlefield advances ahead of the U.S. military’s withdrawal at the end of this month. They’ve seized six provincial capitals in the past week.

And while some Taliban commanders have behaved with restraint in newly captured territory, rights groups say others have acted much like the brutal Taliban the U.S. overthrew in 2001.

To be fair, there are some provinces where the turnover of power to the Taliban has gone relatively smoothly and the new leaders appear to be keeping the lights on. But those are generally in the more rural areas that weren’t all that supportive of the government in Kabul, to begin with, and largely conformed to Sharia Islamic law as the Taliban demands. They have been far less forgiving in other areas where residents had openly been working with the Americans. Public beheadings are already commonplace.

There are multiple disturbing reports coming out of the recently retaken provincial capitals, highlighted in the linked report. Taliban leaders have sent out orders for residents to “provide them with females above age 15” for their fighters to “marry.” In other words, young girls are being seized and handed out as prizes to the victorious fighters under the guise of being child brides.

In other areas, residents suspected of having aided the Americans have been rounded up, leading to the killing of large numbers of detainees en masse. They are clearly sending a message as to who is in charge now and how “justice” will be meted out in the future. So how did the Biden administration react to these developments? Jen Psaki was sent out to clear the air.

“If the Taliban claim to want international legitimacy these actions are not going to get them the legitimacy they seek,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday, in one of many such administration warnings.

We’re threatening a massive group of Islamic terrorists with… a lack of legitimacy? That should do the trick, eh?

The other disturbing part of this carrot-and-stick routine is the implication from the Biden administration that ongoing foreign aid to the new Taliban leadership could be on the table if they behave themselves. We’ve apparently reached the point where we have to pay people to simply not act like vicious animals “too much.” It remains amazing to me that anyone failed to see this Taliban response to our departure coming.