| For Americans and for Afghans, a question asked by U.S. officials and thousands of families stranded in Kabul on Monday was whether the lessons President Biden said he learned after two decades of war in Afghanistan trigger a new chapter of lasting pain. The president’s critics were unsparing. Biden was defensive and unbowed. “Our mission was never supposed to be nation building,” he said Monday in the East Room before flying back to Camp David. “I stand squarely behind my decision.” The president said the Taliban’s takeover and the Afghan government’s rapid collapse were “proof” that “no amount of military force” could secure Afghanistan, which he reminded Americans has been called the “graveyard of empires.” The Associated Press: Taliban today announced “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged Afghan women to join the government. The Hill: Biden defends U.S. military exit, blames Afghanistan leaders for chaos. The Hill: Biden, former President Trump battle over who’s to blame for Afghanistan. 👉 TEXT of Biden’s remarks. Across the political and national security sphere, Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal and the chaotic scenes in Kabul as the Taliban took control earned widespread criticism, with many drawing parallels to foreign policy debacles in U.S. history. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who also led the CIA and was a White House chief of staff to former President Clinton, compared Afghanistan’s precipitous fall to the Cuba Bay of Pigs debacle under former President Kennedy (The Hill). John Bolton, who served as White House national security adviser under Trump, tweeted a blistering critique of Biden’s speech on Monday, calling his defense of the withdrawal and possible rise of terror threats in the region a “huge and potentially fatal mistake.” Retired Gen. David Petraeus, who helmed the CIA under former President Obama and played a key role in the Iraq War, told NBC News on Monday that the enveloping situation is “catastrophic.” “It's also heartbreaking. It's tragic,” Petraeus said. Meanwhile, former President George W. Bush said in a statement late on Monday that he feels “deep sadness” watching the “tragic events” as they unfold across the globe. “Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much,” Bush said (Reuters). The comments came weeks after the 43rd president predicted to a German interviewer that “the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad.” He said the U.S. withdrawal from the region “breaks my heart.” Lawmakers also weighed in. Speaking to reporters in his home state, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster” (Kentucky Public Radio). Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who served three tours of duty in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, pleaded for the administration to do all it could to keep the airport in Kabul open, adding that the evacuation of U.S. embassy personnel on Sunday took place dangerously late. “Secure that airport and keep it open as long as we possibly can. We have the means,” Crow told reporters. “I'm not going to mince words on this. We didn’t need to be in this position. … We should have started this evacuation months ago.” Abroad, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron separately addressed their nations about the downfall of the Afghan government. Merkel argued that the world must help Afghans flee from Taliban rule (Reuters), while Macron called for the European Union to develop a plan to deal with expected Afghan migration (Politico Europe). The New York Times: Lawmakers unite in bipartisan fury over Afghanistan withdrawal. Reuters: United Nations Security Council pushes for talks to form new Afghan government. Politico: The whole world is watching. 
© Getty Images On Monday, desperation filled the Kabul airport as thousands of Afghans and their frightened families, many seeking special visa consideration from the United States and allies, sought flights out of their country. Biden conceded on Monday what was obvious to observers worldwide: “This did unfold more quickly than we anticipated.” Taliban fighters were seen on Kabul streets brandishing U.S. weapons and riding in Humvees. With an estimated 3,000 U.S. soldiers expected on the ground today and thousands more American troops — up to 7,000 total — ordered to arrive to protect the Kabul airport, Monday’s scenes of Afghan men fleeing the wrath of the Taliban beyond the barbed wire by scrambling into aircraft wheel wells and climbing on moving planes proved “gut wrenching,” the president said. U.S. officials said at least eight Afghans died on Monday during the evacuation chaos (The Associated Press). The airport situation was so frenzied that no flights could land or depart safely until late in the day (The New York Times). Biden said the United States would take over air traffic control as it evacuated American citizens and Afghan allies, but he did not offer a timeline. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, warned Taliban officials during a Monday meeting in Doha, Qatar, that the U.S. military would respond forcefully to defend the airport if necessary. Biden repeated that warning at the White House and said a “swift and forceful response,” if necessary, would prove “devastating” to the new rulers of Afghanistan (The Associated Press). Biden said the United States will continue to provide economic and diplomatic support to the Afghan people and advocate for human rights in Afghanistan, but he offered no explanation about how that will work under Taliban control. He said current terrorist threats have “metastasized well beyond Afghanistan” and “warrant our attention and our resources,” but in his Monday address, he said little about either current U.S. intelligence warnings or what critics say was an epic intelligence failure in miscalculating how swiftly the Taliban could take control of a country of 37 million people in a matter of days. The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel reports that the U.S. debacle poses new questions about whether the United States has adequately prepared to face the threats emanating from Afghanistan. The Department of Homeland Security on Friday issued a heightened terrorist threat alert ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Wall Street Journal analysis: Chaotic Afghanistan pullout caps two decades of missteps. Niall Stanage, The Hill analysis: Biden gambles he can plow through Afghan crisis. Defense One (with eye-popping photo): A U.S. Air Force C-17 evacuation flight carrying fleeing Afghans from Kabul to Qatar came close to setting a record for the most people ever flown in the Boeing airlifter. Biden will be interviewed on ABC News by George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday. 
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