If you’d asked me, Leave Afghanistan? a year ago I’d have nodded, said, Yes. We had tanks, jets, helicopters, drones – and Taliban didn’t – but we botched the war.

But it turns out escape was an illusion.

It’s an old story. We fight an enemy. We hand our enemy a gift. And the chickens fly home to roost.

We said for years, ‘America does not negotiate with terrorists’ – but then, both Trump and Biden did negotiate with terrorists, telling Taliban, We’ll fly our soldiers home if, in exchange, you protect us from terrorists like Al Qaeda. Bearded mullahs nodded making promises. Trump signed the agreement to withdraw. Biden carried it out. Polls said ending the ‘forever war’ was popular.

And it was until we pulled out.

After the Twin Towers fell Taliban gave Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda safe havens. Now Taliban’s back in power and can provide terrorists safe havens again – proving withdrawal wasn’t a good idea Biden botched it was a bad idea. Are we safer now than when we had 5,000 soldiers in Kabul? No.