Rocketman, There are more details in this Straits Times (A Singapore newspaper-also government owned).
Quoted (in Part):
"The swift offensive has resulted in mass surrenders, captured helicopters and millions of dollars of US-supplied equipment paraded by the Taleban on grainy cellphone videos. In some cities, heavy fighting had been under way for weeks on their outskirts, but the Taleban ultimately overtook their defensive lines and then walked in with little or no resistance."
"How the Afghan military came to disintegrate first became apparent not last week but months ago, in an accumulation of losses that started even before President Joe Biden's announcement that the US would withdraw by Sept 11.
It began with individual outposts in rural areas where starving and ammunition-depleted soldiers and police units were surrounded by Taleban fighters and promised safe passage if they surrendered and left behind their equipment, slowly giving the insurgents more and more control of roads, then entire districts.As positions collapsed, the complaint was almost always the same: There was no air support or they had run out of supplies and food. "
"These shortfalls can be traced to numerous issues that sprung from the West's insistence on building a fully modern military with all the logistical and supply complexities one requires, and which has proved unsustainable without the US and its Nato allies."
And, there's more similar info. One things clear - the 'West' just doesn't get it. By which I mean that 'West,' seems to consistently fail to understand how ordinary Asians may 'see' the world.
If you wanted to follow that theme through, you may find Pankaj Mishra's book, From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Re-making of Asia, helpful.
The Nations that form NATO and the USA have all attempted to create empires out of Asian nations and somehow all seem to think they are still in charge.