America’s Miscalculations, Afghanistan’s Collapse

<p>The last few days in Afghanistan have been chaotic as the Taliban retake control of the country.</p><p>The debacle can be traced to a number of assumptions that guided the execution of the U.S. withdrawal from the country after two decades of war.</p><p>How could those assumptions have proved so wrong, so quickly?</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-e-sanger?smid=pc-thedaily">David E. Sanger</a>, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/signup/NTTD?smid=pc-thedaily">Sign up here</a> to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>An Afghan military that did not believe in itself and a U.S. effort that President Biden, and most Americans, no longer believed in brought<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/14/us/afghanistan-biden.html"> an ignoble end to the United States’ longest war</a>.</li><li>A takeover of the whole of Afghanistan<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-kabul-surrender.html"> was all but absolute as the government collapsed</a> and the U.S. rushed through a frenzied evacuation.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>