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It seems like the general population very largely don't support the Taliban, but for whatever reasons the urban populations aren't willing or able to stand up a credible defence.

I suspect the problem is the Taliban are 'only' instituting Islamic law. It's hard to fire up a Muslim population against implementing, er, Islam even if they are against the actual resulting policies.

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They don't based on what, UN polls?

Based on the propaganda shown on msm.

Seven rounds of internationally monitored and accredited national and regional elections over the past two decades.

The turnout of the latest election is 19%

For several elections it's hovered around the 1/3 mark. That's not bad by regional standards, and bear in mind several large and populous regions in Afghanistan are non-Pushtun and even follow different branches of Islam. There's just no way the Taliban can conceivably command anything more than middling minority support.

They just have more guns and a bloodier determination to use them. Unfortunately, as is often the case, that’s all it takes.

During those two decades the country was operating under a western puppet government. The fact that the Taliban swept in so quickly with no resistance means that they were always there to begin with.

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