Things look grim in Afghanistan, even with US airpower. In 22 days, they could be much worse

Many thought it would happen like this. But to see it so fast, so stark, brings no comfort in the prediction. The last five days have brought Afghanistan to arguably the most perilous place in the last two decades.

At least five Afghan provincial capitals have fallen to the Taliban, including the major city of Kunduz, while another, Ghazni, is in peril. The US project and its Afghan allies have never seen territory fall to the Taliban so fast. But there's been another casualty: the hope that the Taliban could be left to rage in rural Afghanistan, where they have more support, but be kept out of the cities, has for the most part evaporated.