Things seem to be nudging along in Afghanistan. There has been no incident of major violence, although there has been the odd bit of news about aerial firing to disperse crowds, some fuss about the Afghan national flag, and also claims of some opposition forces of having captured three districts from Taliban control; but nothing the imply the kind of descent into chaos and civil war that was the only working thesis till Kabul actually fell. The Taliban leadership has also gathered in the capital amid reports of substantial progress about the nature of the emerging government structure. And regional players, especially Pakistan, China and Russia, have agreed to work together to move things along in a beneficial way for all countries in and around the area. It’s a very positive sign that the Taliban have already requested the Chinese to play a special role in the rebuilding and reconstruction of the war-torn country.At this point it is more important than anything else to filter through all the noise that is bound to emanate alongside any practical talk about the way forward. Those that still believe that the US might yet have a role to play in the country, or indeed the region, might need to take another look at the way in which it not only conducted this war but also wrapped it up. It’s sudden change of heart, and the decision to pull the plug on the war as well as funding for the collapsing government, and the little regard it had for all the pain and suffering this turn-around would cause to the people of Afghanistan, is enough to show that nobody needs it to stick around and spoil things any further.The Indians are also clearly very upset about having their leverage evaporate with the fall of the Ghani government and the end of the country’s savage intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) that was always eager to play along with Delhi’s games of funding guerilla warfare in Pakistan. News out of Beijing and Moscow, on the other hand, is far more relevant; which is precisely why international headlines made so much of their decision to keep their embassies open after the return of the Taliban. It is for countries in this region, especially those that will be directly affected if things continue to go wrong in Afghanistan, that must help the new government in Kabul chart the way forward. In this way Afghanistan can stabilise, even turn around, and the entire region can look forward to forming mutually beneficial trade and diplomatic alliances as well. *