America is pulling out of its longest war, the 20-year excursion in Afghanistan. Our enemy, the Taliban regime that we supposedly ousted in 2002 for hosting the Al Qaeda terrorist group, has not waited for us to pull our troops and civilian support people out of the country. They have mounted a comeback, taking over province after province with almost no resistance from the Afghan government forces we have been training and equipping for the past two decades. On Sunday, the Taliban was reported to have taken over the presidential palace, and President Ashraf Ghani had fled into exile.

President Joe Biden, who had announced U.S. troops would be coming home, had to send fresh troops into the country to protect the diplomats and U.S. citizens still waiting to evacuate, along with the Afghani civilians who worked with them.

This is a dismaying end to a military quagmire that started with such a sharp, focused goal, to punish those responsible for the 9-11 attacks and those who sheltered them. Over the years that focus shifted, the strategy devolved, and it became clear that the only way to get out of the war was simply to get out of it. President Biden decided that’s what we will do and will have to shoulder the blame for the sorry end to years of wasted effort.