The fall of Kabul and how it reminds of Saigon
Yesterday the world watched as Kabul fell and the Taliban proceeded to take control of Afghanistan. Today the conversation is centered over how that could have happened so quickly and how President Joe Biden managed our exit from the region.
There is also talk about how images of helicopters helping people evacuate remind us of the fall of Saigon. We offer a very personal look at that very memory.
Fall of Kabul, fall of Saigon
By Thuan Le Elston
“No one thought that Kabul would fall in less than 24 hours.”
It’s Sunday. Abdul Qahar is recounting his last phone calls with his parents, four brothers and a sister in Afghanistan. He’s FaceTiming me from Sacramento, California, and his eyes are drained from lack of sleep: “I was thinking that we would have a week or so to buy them tickets to fly to Pakistan or Turkey.”
Today's editorial cartoon
- War in Afghanistan gallery: Editorial cartoonists on the never-ending conflict
A well-intentioned miscalculation with disastrous, predictable results
Editorial Board
Few American presidents have had their blunders so spectacularly validated in real time as Joe Biden in Afghanistan.
"The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely," the 46th president told reporters in July after a decision to end U.S. military involvement there.
Taliban fighters entered Kabul Sunday demanding unconditional surrender after wresting nearly the entire country from government control in a matter of weeks.
More of our Afghanistan coverage
- US waited too long to withdraw from Afghanistan
- Political toll of Biden's mishandled Afghanistan end game may be slight
- Were U.S. losses in vain? 'Forever war' in Afghanistan resulted in fewer terror attacks
This newsletter was compiled by Louie Villalobos