Two feed stories: Afghan president flees the country as Taliban move on Kabul - Aug. 15; a day earlier: As Taliban tighten their grip, Kabul airport only way out - Aug 14.
Opening of the earlier item -
KABUL, Afghanistan — As a Taliban offensive encircles the Afghan capital, there's increasingly only one way out for those fleeing the war, and only one way in for U.S. troops sent to protect American diplomats still on the ground: Kabul's international airport.
The Vietnam lesson again. They live there, next door, Pakistan now. Hanoi then.
They wait for invading world-away forces to leave. Patient that way. Over years. Ultimately they did leave. Hurriedly.
Only one way out. Ain't going out that front door. A man's down there, just might be Taliban - I don't know.
From the Aug. 15 AP item beginning -
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.
The Taliban, who for hours had been on the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.
Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women's rights rushed to leave the country as well, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor — who had left homes in the countryside for the presumed safety of the capital — remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected comparisons to the U.S. pullout from Vietnam, as many watched in disbelief at the sight of helicopters landing in the embassy compound.
Disbelief? It was inevitable. Each time. Why not believe the inevitable? Life is more orderly that way. Things falling into place.
History teaches. Nixon and Kissinger did the right thing when they left.
Trump then Biden did the right thing. Leaving.
Each one having its story of how we got there. We got reporting. Never a decent "WHY IN THE WORLD . . .?" There are reasons, and then there are good reasons.
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At least this time it was not conscripts being sacrificed. There is that difference.
___________UPDATE___________
Two wars. Each time a feckless Congress going along to get along. Image. If you enlarge that image you can read the lectern badge. It is getting a haughty response. History in the making.
