Why A Chaotic Exit From Afghanistan Was Preordained

Biden-haters are, understandably enough, making much of America’s blundering withdrawal from Afghanistan; a humiliation on a scale not seen since Vietnam – and equally a symbol of a decline in American power, a defeat in asymmetric warfare, and the substance and symbol of global over-reach.

- Sean O'Grady

In due course, American power and prestige eventually recovered after the scramble out of Saigon and may do so again after the fall of Kabul. A more immediate question is whether Donald Trump would have done a better job because Biden’s failures have been weaponized by the Maga movement.

It is difficult to see how, or why, America’s capitulation would have been any more humane or elegant under Trump than it was under Biden.

It was Trump, after all, who signed the disastrous peace treaty with the Taliban last February – effectively an instrument of surrender – post-dating the withdrawal so that he could present it, before the November election, as peace with honor.

It was, for those who like to hear historical echoes, not so different from the 1973 Paris peace accords that “ended” the Vietnam war and allowed the south Vietnamese and President Thieu to struggle on for a few more months.