Taliban’s effective takeover of Afghanistan was ‘surprisingly quick’ but ‘inevitable’

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon says while it was “surprising” how quickly the Taliban managed to invade Kabul their effective takeover of Afghanistan was “inevitable”. “It is surprising that it happened so fast, but it was inevitable from the point at which the Americans announced their intention to withdraw,” he told Sky News Australia. “In effect, what happened there … is the Afghan National Army has basically acquiesced and just rolled over and allowed the inevitable to flow. “In fact, many, it’s reported, have been joining the Taliban along the way. “The question now of course is what sort of a country is Afghanistan going to be under this new regime? “Will it remain brutally murderous, or will it attempt to secure some level of support from the international community in the hope of at some point becoming part of the international community and abiding to some extend at least to international norms?”