I'm getting fed up with the likes of Tom Tugendhat and Rory Stewart making arguments like this...
which completely ignore the loss rate being suffered by Afghan forces and civilians:
and also ignore the incorrigible corruption of the former government, which was causing those selfsame forces to go unpaid and underfed, and was making local communities fed up with being shaken down for cash and food by those who were supposedly protecting them. For men who are praised for their supposed insight to Afghanistan and its
problems, their case for the West to have stayed shows a remarkable naivety.
It's also fair to say that Biden has completely misjudged his communications by blaming Afghan forces for cowardice, when he should have been blaming corrupt Afghan governance (which, together with Western failure to acknowledge it) is at the heart of the matter.