With the roar of a US military cargo plane lumbering into the night sky over Afghanistan’s Taliban-held capital, the last US troops departed the country at almost the stroke of midnight on Monday, ending America’s longest war and leaving lasting but disparate wounds that cut across two nations.

The momentous final scenes played out in darkness. But Tuesday’s first light marked the dawning of incontrovertible knowledge: Afghans had once again been delivered into the hands of the Taliban, the medieval-minded Islamist group that horrified the world with its cruelties before being toppled in the 2001 US-led invasion.

MCT