As Taliban capture cities, US says Afghan forces must fend for themselves

If the Taliban had seized three provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan a year ago, like they did on Sunday, the American response would most likely have been ferocious. Fighter jets and helicopter gunships would have responded in force, beating back the Islamist group or, at the very least, stalling its advance.
 
But these are different times. What aircraft the US military coul­d muster from hundreds of miles away struck a cache of weap­ons far from Kunduz, Tali­qan or Sar-i-Pul, the cities that already had bee­n all but lost to the Tali­ban. The muted American response showed in no uncertain