The Taliban won because of their unblinking fervor...

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. No. It's true that they could not defeat U.S. troops in combat. Defeating the U.S. wasn't their goal

just like occupying Afghanistan wasn't our goal. Bin Ladin wanted to defeat the U.S. but the Taliban wanted to impose their version of Islam on Afghanistan.

I'm not interested in discussing here what the U.S. could have or should have done differently in Afghanistan. The Taliban won control over most of Afghanistan before the U.S. invaded there. The Taliban marched into Kabul while we were withdrawing without having to fire a shot, despite the U.S. having trained and armed well over 300,00 Afghan central government forces. The Taliban were not/are not popular with most Afghan citizens, yet they control that nation today. They never gave up, Afghan resistance to them did.