AUGUST 1
August is the month when oppressive humidity causes the mass evacuation of official Washington. In 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki piled her family into the car for a week at the beach. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Hamptons to visit his elderly father. Their boss left for the leafy sanctuary of Camp David.
They knew that when they returned, their attention would shift to a date circled at the end of the month. On August 31, the United States would officially complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan, concluding the longest war in American history.
The State Department didn't expect to solve Afghanistan's problems by that date. But if everything went well, there was a chance to wheedle the two warring sides into some sort of agreement that would culminate in the nation's president, Ashraf Ghani, resigning from office, beginning an orderly transfer of power to a governing coalition that included the Taliban. There was even discussion of Blinken flying out, most likely to Doha, Qatar, to preside over the signing of an accord.
It would be an ending, but not the end. Within the State Department there was a strongly held belief: Even after August 31, the embassy in Kabul would remain open. It wouldn't be as robustly staffed, but some aid programs would continue; visas would still be issued. The United States at least not the State Department wasn't going to abandon the country.
Denne historien er fra October 2023-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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Denne historien er fra October 2023-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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Catching the Carjackers - On the road with an elite police unit as it combats a crime wave
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Long a fearless critic of Israeli society, since October 7 Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi has made wrenching portraits of her nation's sufferingand become a target of protest.
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The writer’ insistence on ignoring the web is an even bigger blind spot today than it was when The Tipping Point came out.
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In Texas and elsewhere, new laws and policies have encouraged neighbors to report neighbors to the government.
