« Hard to fight with no air cover.«
Did the Taliban have air cover?
>> Did the Taliban have air cover? <<
No, but they have been accustomed to fighting without it all along. The Taliban may well be better fighters if fighting under equal conditions, but I still don’t like seeing them win, and it could have been prevented. It’s understandably demoralizing for the government troops to suddenly find themselves fighting without the support they have relied on in the past.
Apparently in two decades steps weren’t taken to gradually turn over maintenance and operation of air power to the Afghan government forces (not our latest and greatest equipment, of course, but enough to hold off the Taliban) — or not done adequately, anyway. Without facing air power themselves I’d expect old equipment in the hands of the Afghans would be effective.