The Taliban are, and always have been, a disparate group of local war lords who have been given a common aim.

Having achieved that aim I suspect they will return to fighting like cats in a bag, as they have since Kitchener failed to defeat them.

The Russians and the Americans have found this to their cost. In the UK we have, yet again, failed to learn the lessons of history.

My sympathy lies with those Afghans who placed their trust in the UK.

JA Whitmore, Orchard Paddock, Haxby

The UN is proving toothless once again

The rest of the world has condemned America and NATO (mainly the UK) for departing from Afghanistan. Yet none of these critics have offered to fill the vacuum left with their own troops. In the meantime, the ‘United Nations’ organisation is proving once again to be totally impotent when faced with a crisis.

Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby

The stupidity of our political leaders led to this crisis

After watching the Taliban undo in days what the west spent 20 years trying to achieve, the reason for failure can be summed up perfectly by this passage by Carl von Clausewitz: “We see, therefore, that war is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce.”

Afghanistan has been a disaster because of the sheer stupidity of our own political leadership.

We should never have got involved in the first place and yet what did we do with Tony Blair after he began this farce?

Yes, that’s right, we re-elected him twice and now everybody is going to pay the price.

Our current leaders didn’t cause it, but as we were committed they needed to organise a proper withdrawal.

Instead they allowed this catastrophe. And don’t let them tell you otherwise - this mess was a clear political choice, the wrong choice.

Boris likes to idolise Churchill.

Well, after this weeks disgraceful surrender and retreat he should start looking to Chamberlain as to how a Prime Minister can do the decent thing and resign.

The same goes for Joe Biden.

God help us when we end up being confronted directly by truly powerful countries such as China.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York