So What You're Describing Is "Chaos"

Just incredible: "One senior administration official, discussing classified intelligence information that had been presented to Mr. Biden, said there was no sense that the Taliban were on the march." https://t.co/jDpSk7oj3Z

— Evan Hill (@evanhill) August 21, 2021

And did this "chaos" come from intelligence failures? How is that possible? (How is that not another parallel to Vietnam?)

https://t.co/MNDbYdV7by pic.twitter.com/S5U1E0HuTM

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 21, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Possible IS threats against Americans in Afghanistan force military to find new ways for evacuees to reach Kabul airport.

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) August 21, 2021

The circumstances in the country are quite different, but a number of people who came of age during the Vietnam War era - including Democrats who like Biden - have said they see a parallel to the imagery. https://t.co/yQ1kVsXAZr

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 21, 2021

Quick question: how many non-military American citizens were living in Vietnam in 1975? And does this "worse" include the flotillas that set out from the long coastline just headed to sea and hoping for rescue? 'Cause last time I looked, Afghanistan didn't have a coastline. Apples to apples? Or apples to dragonfruit?

Maybe we shouldn’t so easily write off a guy who was a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam (1965-1966), a reporter who was among the last to be evacuated from Saigon by helicopter in 75 and a correspondent who covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan from the Afghan side in 1980? https://t.co/k4dHl2yUyF

— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) August 21, 2021

"Question authority." Something I learned after Vietnam.

https://t.co/MNDbYdV7by pic.twitter.com/S5U1E0HuTM

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 21, 2021

I could swear I've seen this movie before. And I'm reminded the ancient Greeks thought chaos was the default setting of the cosmos.  I'm beginning to think they were right.

If only we had started evacuations earlier … we would have had this earlier. https://t.co/5FVYFeV8En

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 21, 2021

None of this is to say that what happened here was great, or couldn't have been ameliorated to some extent in hindsight or with foresight. But many people are overlooking how much chaos necessarily results from the collapse of a country at the end of a war.

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 21, 2021

The D.C. pundits aren't going to like this, either:

NEW: Every morning this week, a newly established “war room” convened at the White House.

Its focus isn’t Afghanistan but Biden’s domestic agenda — the administration’s top priority & focus, even as other challenges flare up.

w ⁦@Noahbierman⁩ https://t.co/qhG7MnPtsk

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) August 21, 2021