Top Items:
Susannah George / Washington Post:
Afghanistan's military collapse: Illicit deals and mass desertions — KABUL — The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan's military that allowed Taliban fighters to reach the gates of Kabul on Sunday despite twenty years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series …
Discussion:
BBC, Twin Cities, The Intercept, Wall Street Journal and New York Times
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Axios:
1 big thing: Biden's stain — Rarely has an American president's predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan. — Usually military operations and diplomacy are long; the outcomes, foggy. Not here. — Just five weeks ago, President Biden assured Americans …
Discussion:
HotAir, Washington Post, TheBlaze, The Moderate Voice, Power Line, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart and Task & Purpose
George Packer / The Atlantic:
Biden's Betrayal of Afghans Will Live in Infamy — There's plenty of blame to go around for the 20-year debacle in Afghanistan—enough to fill a library of books. Perhaps the effort to rebuild the country was doomed from the start. But our abandonment of the Afghans who helped us …
Discussion:
USA Today and Associated Press
Associated Press:
Taliban enter Kabul, await ‘peaceful transfer’ of power — KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters entered Kabul on Sunday and sought the unconditional surrender of the central government, officials said, as Afghans and foreigners alike raced for the exit, signaling the end …
Discussion:
NPR, Washington Post, Atlantic Council, National File, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, The Moderate Voice, Al Jazeera, TheBlaze, CNBC, Raw Story, National Review, Slate, Outside the Beltway, Forbes, Common Dreams, Washington Examiner, Insider, The Hill, Mock Paper Scissors, CBS San Francisco, FOX 5 San Diego, NBC 6 South Florida, ABC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
John Podhoretz / Commentary Magazine:
All Biden Had to Do Was...Nothing — All Joe Biden had to do was nothing. Had Joe Biden done nothing, Afghanistan would not have fallen to the Taliban today. Had he just let the status quo continue, the status quo would have continued. Afghanistan would have plodded along and we would have kept …
Discussion:
RedState, Breitbart and Instapundit
ABC News:
Afghanistan updates: Another 1K US troops heading to Kabul, bringing total to 6,000 — The U.S. flag has been taken down at the embassy in Kabul, an official said. — Another 1,000 soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne have been ordered to head directly to Afghanistan's capital instead …
Discussion:
U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, National Review and RedState
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Terrorist threat to U.S. levels up after Taliban rise, Joint Chiefs chair says — Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban much faster than President Biden or his top military leaders predicted.
Discussion:
CNN, The Guardian and The US Sun
Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review:
The Broader Questions Aside, President Biden Has Disastrously Botched this Withdrawal — Those who are defending the debacle in Afghanistan seem to believe that there is only one important question to ask here: Namely, should the United States have withdrawn per se? In reality, though there are two questions.
Discussion:
Jihad Watch
New York Times:
Afghanistan Live Updates: Taliban Advances on Kabul; U.S. Evacuation Accelerates — The insurgents, after seizing control of the eastern city of Jalalabad, encircled the Afghan capital. A senior American official said key diplomatic staff had been moved to a compound at the airport.
Yaroslav Trofimov / Wall Street Journal:
Taliban Enter Kabul as Panic Spreads in Afghanistan's Capital
Discussion:
Power Line, Al Jazeera, Breitbart and National Review
Tara Palmeri / Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: How the White House wants to spin the fall of Kabul
Discussion:
Fox News, Wall Street Journal and Trending Politics
New York Times:
A frenzied flight from Kabul as the U.S. evacuation accelerates.
Discussion:
Task & Purpose
CNN:
US completes evacuation of embassy in Afghanistan as flag comes down at diplomatic compound
Discussion:
HotAir, The Independent Tribune, New York Post, Mediaite, Politico, The US Sun, Associated Press, UPI, The Hill and The Daily Caller
CNN:
Biden officials admit miscalculation as Afghanistan's national forces and government rapidly fall
Discussion:
Fox News, HotAir, The Daily Caller, The National Interest, Twin Cities, The Texas Tribune, Newsbusters and Bloomberg
ABC News:
‘This Week’ Transcript 8-15-21: Sec. Antony Blinken & Rep. Liz Cheney
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA and Townhall
Michael R. Gordon / Wall Street Journal:
Biden's Afghanistan Exit Raises Questions About His Foreign-Policy Record
Discussion:
The Daily Wire, RedState, TheBlaze and The Daily Caller
Andrew A. Michta / 19FortyFive:
Why America Was Destined to Fail in Afghanistan
Discussion:
Bloomberg, spectatorworld.com, TheBlaze and Trending Politics
Associated Press:
The Latest: UN to hold emergency meeting on Afghanistan
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, One America News Network, Breitbart, HotAir and Insider
Atefa Alizada / The Guardian:
Afghan women's defiance and despair: 'I never thought I'd have to wear a burqa. My identity will be lost'
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Page Array
Siobhan Hughes / Wall Street Journal:
Biden Officials Blame Trump Administration, Security Forces for Afghanistan Collapse
Discussion:
HotAir, RedState and Washington Post
Washington Post:
Taliban enters Kabul, leaving Afghan government on brink of collapse
Discussion:
BBC, The Guardian, Axios, Twitchy, Political Wire, The US Sun, Mediaite, Daily Kos, Townhall, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Post and Task & Purpose
Politico:
Taliban seize power amid chaos in Kabul
Discussion:
New York Post, Insider, The Guardian, Associated Press, One America News Network, Twin Cities and justoneminute.typepad.com
Allahpundit / HotAir:
“Forget the visas”: The scramble is on to save Afghan partners as Taliban close in
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Free Beacon and Washington Post
Adam Weinstein / Responsible Statecraft:
20-year US intervention in ruins as Taliban enters Kabul
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Mediaite
Stars & Stripes:
‘They are coming’: US diplomats await flights out of Kabul as the Taliban advance and fear spreads in the capital
Discussion:
New York Post, Financial Times, UPI, CBS News and One America News Network
Liz Sly / Washington Post:
Afghanistan's collapse leaves allies questioning U.S. resolve on other fronts
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Breitbart, Townhall, Balloon Juice, HotAir and Insider
Sky News:
Afghanistan live updates: Taliban enters outskirts of Kabul - as Afghan government promise peaceful transition of power
Discussion:
Telegraph
W. James Antle III / Washington Examiner:
Once an area of agreement, Biden and Trump trade blame on Afghanistan
Discussion:
National Review, POLITICUSUSA, HotAir, Crooks and Liars, emptywheel, Breitbart, Trending Politics, Financial Times, Politico, TheBlaze, The Gateway Pundit and NPR
Justin Gomez / ABC News:
US moving personnel out of its embassy in Kabul: Blinken
Discussion:
Slate, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, CNN and Townhall
John Ellis / GEN:
Biden's Folly — Afghanistan. Lynsey Addario for Getty Images.
Discussion:
Washington Times, Fox News, Bipartisan Report, Raw Story and Power Line
Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
Exclusive: U.S. Channel for Emergency Afghan Visas Crashes — State Department mailbox crashes under weight of thousands of SIV applications — The email in-box for emergency visa applications for Afghans who worked with the U.S. has crashed, according to a former Air Force serviceman trying …
Discussion:
Just Security
NBC News:
‘Easy money’: How international scam artists pulled off an epic theft of Covid benefits — Last June, the FBI got a warrant to hunt through the Google accounts of Abedemi Rufai, a Nigerian state government official. — What they found, they said in a sworn affidavit, was all the ingredients for a …
CBS News:
California's vaccinated say unvaccinated are adding risk; strong support for mandates — CBS News poll — As Californians express widespread concern about the Delta variant, they overwhelmingly say the state's recent rise in cases was preventable, had more people gotten vaccinated and taken more precautions.
Discussion:
Forbes, CBS Los Angeles, Breitbart and CBS San Francisco
Roger L. Simon / theepochtimes.com:
Elder Ignores Mainstream Media in First Online Press Conference — Who'd a thunk it? — Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Politico (both of whom had multiple reporters) and a host of other mainstream media suspects, including the Associated Press, got to ask a single question Friday …
Catherine Kim / Politico:
NIH director sees ‘no signs’ of a Delta peak — National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins warned on Sunday the continuing rise of Covid-19 cases propelled by the Delta variant could return the nation to the worst days of the pandemic. — “This is going very steeply upward …
Discussion:
The Guardian, CNN and Fox News
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