If you listen to the State Department, you will learn interesting things:

• You will learn that the US intends to pay the Taliban millions of dollars for their help, and to aid in their governing Afghanistan.

• You will learn that the Taliban are enemies of terrorists like Isis, Al Qaeda, and the Haqqani Network.

• You will learn that the US trusted the Taliban with a list of Americans still remaining in Afghanistan, so the Taliban would help to evacuate them.

All this is based on the assumption that these are separate entities, and that personnel do not move from one to another. That is, that they are discrete groups like the Bloods and the Crips, or like Mafia families, and that members almost never transfer from one group to another.

In reality, they are all extremist Islamists, and membership is fluid. In reality, all are dedicated to establishing Sharia law worldwide, and to using whatever violence is necessary to do so. In reality, all agree that women have no rights, must not be educated, and are the property of their male relatives. In reality, all agree that killing infidels (non-Muslims) is not only permitted but required.

But wait – why listen to the State Department in the first place? Those who are consistently wrong are poor sources of information. They told us Afghanistan could be turned into a democracy. They told us that women’s rights would be respected. They told us that the rights of non-Muslims would be respected. They told us that the Afghan army was strong and reliable. They told us that the Afghan president was competent. After all, he had been a professor at Johns Hopkins. What more could we ask?

All this proved wrong, dangerously wrong. No, better listen to the schizophrenic ranting on the sidewalk. At least we know that he is completely disconnected from reality. With the State Department, it’s less obvious.