so this feigned surprise, or maybe genuine surprise, but it was quite clear that it would come to this when you started to see the taliban take territory without having to fight months ago. so no, i'm not at all surprised by the speed. once you have enough momentum and have enough weapons, nobody is going to stand up to you and nobody did. >> so ben, if richard wasn't surprised, why were american officials surprised by the speed? >> here is why i think so. because often you look at things like what are the numbers of afghan security forces, what hardware do they have. they had better armaments than the taliban, they have an air force that the taliban doesn't have. and you are really looking at sheets of paper. what that doesn't show is what is the sense of momentum in the country, where is the morale.

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