Over the past 20 years, U.S. military and intelligence services have generally either not understood or chosen to ignore this dynamic as they sought to paint an optimistic picture of American efforts to build a strong, loyal Afghan army.

I've been similarly struck by how big of a failure this pull-out seems to be on behalf of U.S. intelligence agencies and/or the process of acting on intelligence. Maybe it's more likely that intel people knew how rapidly the Taliban could peacefully take over, but how far up the chain of command? Deserves investigation.

But sure, we needed to leave the country. We failed to make a case for adopting American ideals, and for a litany of reasons. In hindsight, that was a pipe dream, and probably a talking point first thought up by DoD contractor lobbyists.

Pathetic that many media outlets have let politicians use this to point fingers but pay very little attention to Bush Jr., Cheney, Obama, or anyone else that started or perpetuated indefinitely occupying anywhere in the Middle East.

I suspect Trump understood how spectacularly poor the process of leaving Afghanistan would play out, and waited to put off the possibility until after the 2020 election so as to not hurt his chances. Syria didn't go well either. Now Biden is hoping like hell that the long-term results (or at least the perception thereof) of this evacuation are positive, but damn, what a botched operation.

Can you imagine being governed by a woman-repressing, anti-science, gun-toting faction of religious fundamentalists? Sounds bad!

begins to sing the "Greg Abbott Is The Best" song, as required by decree of Our Lord Governor