Yes, in case you haven't heard, the US Armed Forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan at the end of the month, and NATO's "Resolute Support" mission—which took over from the NATO combat mission that ended in 2014—will wind up at the same time. And now, exactly as predicted, everything is chaos.

And by "everything," I mean everything.

The Taliban are quickly taking over the country. This story is developing by the hour so it will doubtless have moved on by the time you read this, but as of press time the Taliban have already seized half of Afghanistan's provincial capitals—including Kandahar and Herat, the second and third largest cities in the country respectively—and are on their way (inevitably, we are told) to capturing Kabul itself. The US military has given up defending the country and is now launching "over-the-horizon" strikes from Qatar and the Persian Gulf and using drone strikes to destroy its own artillery and armoured vehicles, which are increasingly falling into Taliban hands.

In response, everyone is getting the hell out of Dodge. Denmark is evacuating Afghan citizens who worked at its embassy. Canada is deploying its special forces to evacuate its own embassy staff. The US military is doing likewise and begging the Taliban to pretty please don't hurt us as we run away. (No word yet on whether people will be hanging from helicopters as they make their last-minute escape.)

And, oh yeah, by the way, Al CIAda is regrouping.