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9:40 PM ET, August 15, 2021

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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 …
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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
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 …
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: The Guardian, CNN and The US Sun
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 …
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 …
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Afghans working for U.S. government broadcasters fear Taliban backlash.  —  More than a hundred journalists employed by the American government's own radio stations remain in Afghanistan as the Taliban take power, U.S. officials and Afghan journalists said Sunday.
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 …
The Bulwark:
America Has a Moral Obligation to Get Our Translators Out of Afghanistan  —  (SCREENSHOT HTTPS://MOBILE.TWITTER.COM/BSARWARY/ STATUS/1427002551858311173)  —  We promised we would get them out.  We promised we would stand by the thousands of Afghan translators and their families as they stood …
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: RedState
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
How America Failed in Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal:
Intelligence Reports From Afghanistan Missed One Key Element: Speed
Discussion: HotAir
Associated Press:
Concerns over US terror threats rising as Taliban hold grows
Julian Borger / The Guardian:
Taliban's Abdul Ghani Baradar is undisputed victor of a 20-year war
Discussion: The Daily Caller
CNN:
US completes evacuation of embassy in Afghanistan as flag comes down at diplomatic compound
Siobhan Hughes / Wall Street Journal:
Biden Officials Blame Trump Administration, Security Forces for Afghanistan Collapse
Discussion: RedState
Liz Sly / Washington Post:
Afghanistan's collapse leaves allies questioning U.S. resolve on other fronts
Laura Reiley / Washington Post:
Biden administration approves largest increase to food assistance benefits in SNAP program history  —  Benefits will rise by 25 percent on average, an infusion of cash that advocates say better reflects the modern cost of a basic diet.  —  The Biden administration has approved the largest increase …
Discussion: Associated Press and Politico
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Jason DeParle / New York Times:
Biden Administration Prompts Largest Permanent Increase in Food Stamps  —  The jump in benefits, the biggest in the program's history, comes after a revision of the initiative's nutrition standards that supporters say will reduce hunger and better reflect how Americans eat.
Discussion: NBC News, The US Sun and Bloomberg
Krista Torralva / Dallas Morning News:
Texas Supreme Court blocks mask mandates in Dallas, Bexar counties  —  The entirely Republican court granted a temporary stay at the request of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Sunday.  —  Two days after a Dallas appeals court dealt Texas Gov. Greg Abbott …
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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 …
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 …
Seth Moulton / U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton:
Moulton Statement on the Situation in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) issued the following statement on Afghanistan:  —  To say that today is anything short of a disaster would be dishonest.  Worse, it was avoidable.  The time to debate whether we stay …
 
 
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