"I’ve also noticed a naïveté about some of the commentary on Afghanistan. It presumes that there was a clean solution for the U.S., if only the Biden administration (and, to a lesser extent, the Trump administration) had executed it."
https://twitter.com/mattzeitlin/status/1430520424643940353
"The commentary never quite spells out what the solution was, though. There is a reason for that: A clean solution probably did not exist."
https://twitter.com/mattzeitlin/status/1430520424643940353
"The fundamental choice, as my colleague Helene Cooper told me, was between a permanent, low-level U.S. war in Afghanistan — a version of what John McCain once called a 100-year war — and a messy exit."
https://twitter.com/mattzeitlin/status/1430520424643940353
"'The pullout was never going to be a simple thing,' says Helene, who covers the Pentagon. 'It was always going to be an ugly pullout.'"
https://twitter.com/MattZeitlin/status/1430520424643940353
"One of Ghani’s main requests was that the U.S. ... limit evacuations.
It was an understandable request. A mass evacuation would have amounted to a surrender to the Taliban (for which Biden would have been blamed)."
It was an understandable request. A mass evacuation would have amounted to a surrender to the Taliban (for which Biden would have been blamed)."
https://twitter.com/MattZeitlin/status/1430520424643940353
"The only hope for Ghani’s government depended on avoiding a large, advance evacuation of the Afghans who were helping run the country."
https://twitter.com/MattZeitlin/status/1430520424643940353
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