Afghan security forces' wholesale collapse was years in the making  —  In the summer of 2011, Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV made a round of public appearances to boast that he had finally solved a problem that had kept U.S. troops bogged down in Afghanistan for a decade.

US reaches deal with Taliban on evacuations: report  —  The U.S. has reached a deal with the Taliban to ensure that evacuations from Kabul's airport can take place without interference from the group, according to a report by The Associated Press.  —  The deal was reached in talks in Doha …

Biden Was Right  —  In 2017, I arrived at Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport as part of a congressional staff delegation.  Even though the U.S. embassy stood a mere four miles away, safety concerns necessitated our helicoptering from a recently constructed multimillion-dollar transit facility instead of traveling by road.

After Sunday It's Even More Clear Biden Was Right  —  Americans, or at least the commentating classes, are watching aghast as events unfold in Afghanistan.  Some are second-guessing the wisdom of withdrawal - after all, how hard is it to maintain a few thousand soldiers there permanently?

Inside Reach 871, A US C-17 Packed With 640 Afghans Trying to Escape the Taliban  —  The Air Force evacuation flight from Kabul to Qatar came near the record for most people ever flown in the Boeing airlifter.  — AFGHANISTAN - WHITE HOUSE - AIR FORCE - CIVILIANS

Uzbekistan says it downed Afghan military plane crossing in  —  MOSCOW (AP) — An Afghan military plane was downed by Uzbekistan's air defense system on Sunday over an attempt to illegally enter the country's air space, Uzbek authorities said Monday.  —  The downing took place in southeastern Uzbekistan …

Did America just lose Afghanistan because of WhatsApp?  —  In the middle of a conflict, good analysis is hard to come by.  Because adversaries do not telegraph their plans to one another, plans depend greatly on the fact patterns surrounding their execution, and no human mind can possibly observe …

Three Killed in Kabul Airport as Afghans Scramble to Escape Taliban  —  Mass evacuations follow the insurgents' capture of Kabul after a rapid sweep of the country  —  At least three people were killed by gunfire Monday morning in chaotic scenes at the passenger terminal of Kabul's international airport …

Joe Biden is facing a crisis of competence  —  (CNN)At the heart of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign was a single word: competence.  —  After four years of Donald Trump's incompetence in, well, everything, the Biden argument was that the country badly needed a steady hand on the tiller …