Violence, poverty and terrorism: Afghanistan fears a bleak, unpredictable future under the Taliban

Waheed Arian cries as he watches the deadly chaos unfolding in Kabul.

He remembers the last time Afghanistan’s “holy guerrillas of the jihad” — various groups of mujahedeen — entered Kabul back in 1992. The Soviet Union had withdrawn its forces and Afghanistan’s Moscow-backed government crumbled, much like the country’s Washington-backed regime has now.

“The bullets and rockets were flying over our heads, hitting the walls and ceiling,” Arian said. “We left everything, stepping over dead bodies to find safety. My family spent four years travelling to different towns and cities.”

They watched as the Taliban — fighters whose creed was rooted in