The fall of Kabul may have made headlines around the globe, but for this particular reader, the news that hit hardest as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan was the recapture of Lashkar Gah on 13 August. The capital of Helmand province, the city had been the focus of the UK's portion of the West's now-abandoned exercise in nation-building. Voices from across the political spectrum are already claiming that such efforts were always doomed to failure: but there was a time, not so long ago, where there was genuine optimism in the city.
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