<?xml version="1.0"?>
<oembed><version>1.0</version><provider_name>Intercessors for America</provider_name><provider_url>https://ifapray.org</provider_url><author_name>admin</author_name><author_url>https://ifapray.org/blog/author/ifaadmin/</author_url><title>The Taliban&#x2019;s Swift Victory Was Years in the Making - Intercessors for America</title><type>rich</type><width>600</width><height>338</height><html>&lt;blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="OtH8Jbw2b2"&gt;&lt;a href="https://ifapray.org/legislative-updates/the-talibans-swift-victory-was-years-in-the-making/"&gt;The Taliban&#x2019;s Swift Victory Was Years in the Making&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://ifapray.org/legislative-updates/the-talibans-swift-victory-was-years-in-the-making/embed/#?secret=OtH8Jbw2b2" width="600" height="338" title="&#x201C;The Taliban&#x2019;s Swift Victory Was Years in the Making&#x201D; &#x2014; Intercessors for America" data-secret="OtH8Jbw2b2" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;script&gt;
/*! This file is auto-generated */
!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&amp;&amp;d.addEventListener&amp;&amp;"undefined"!=typeof URL&amp;&amp;(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&amp;&amp;!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i&lt;o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i&lt;a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&amp;&amp;(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3&lt;(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r&lt;200&amp;&amp;(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&amp;&amp;(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&amp;&amp;n.host===r.host&amp;&amp;l.activeElement===s&amp;&amp;(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r&lt;s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document);
&lt;/script&gt;
</html><description>The end came fast, but the militants laid the foundation with years of shadow government, steady recruitment and patience.&#xA0;The first major Afghan city fell on Aug. 9. The last one, Kabul, capitulated just six days later. The offensive that returned the Taliban to power 20 years after they were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition seemed &hellip; Continued</description><thumbnail_url>https://ifapray.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Facebook-Social-Share-Image.png</thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width>1200</thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height>630</thumbnail_height></oembed>

<!--
Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: https://www.boldgrid.com/w3-total-cache/

Object Caching 101/103 objects using Redis
Database Caching 5/5 queries in 0.002 seconds using Redis

Served from: _ @ 2025-05-24 12:04:48 by W3 Total Cache
-->