Over the summer of 2021, the US began pulling out the last of its troops present in Afghanistan after occupying the country for nearly 20 years. The Taliban then launched a renewed assault against the US-backed government in the country that Washington had installed, and against the expectations of virtually everyone, it only took the Taliban a matter of months to completely overrun the entire country again and destroy the US-installed government in the process. This was despite the fact that the Taliban was both significantly outnumbered and significantly less-well equipped. This is how the Taliban shocked America and the World over the summer of 2021.