“The Taliban were a strategic project of the Pakistani military intelligence agency, the ISI. It even conducted market surveys in the villages around Kandahar, to test the label and the messaging. ‘Taliban’ worked well. The image evoked was of the young students who apprenticed themselves to village religious leaders. They were known as sober, studious, and gentle.”

Sarah Chayes
“The Ides Of August”

A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the country’s embassy in Kabul on Sunday as diplomatic personnel were being ferried to the airport amid the Taliban’s rapid advance on the Afghan capital — Photo By Rahmat Gul/Associated Press