"We like to live in this dream state that the most powerful countries matter. They dont. Ask the Taliban."

You mean ask a bunch of people living in the stone age, who are getting killed en masse what they think of their power relative to others?

I think you picked maybe the worst possible example: just because a group can live on rice in inhostile territory doesn't mean that the power ratio is negated.

If the Americans wanted to actually destroy the Taliban it wouldn't be that hard, it would just come at a cost nobody wants to pay.