they could have won the war in 2 years instead of losing the war in 20. all they had to do was target the taliban leadership in pakistan instead of their foot soldiers in the vast mountains of afghanistan.
"The Taliban has fought against the US and the Kabul state for two decades in the face of casualties that would have shattered the morale and recruitment of almost any other army. The Vietnamese communists are the only parallel I can think of – and indeed, the Taliban may have learned the importance of discipline and organisation indirectly from communism.
There are provinces in Afghanistan where five Taliban governors in a row have been killed – and yet a new volunteer for the position has always stepped forward. This marks a striking contrast with all previous religiously inspired Pashtun tribal uprisings, which grew rapidly but also collapsed quickly after the first major defeat."
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00396338.2021.1...
interesting that even the North - ethnically different, ie. Uzbeks, led by General Doustum, and which has been anti-Taliban for decades - fell without fight, and Doustum had to run into Uzbekistan. According to Nur, the [former] Governor of Balkh, (translation of translation) "it was a deep and widespread treason as all the government objects and forces were just simply transferred to Taliban".