America's Afghan misadventure is not Biden's 'Saigon moment'

Predictions about what will follow should be accompanied with a degree of humility

Lionel Barber

August 16, 2021 05:00 JST

A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, August 15, as the Taliban began entering the Afghan capital from all sides. © AP

Lionel Barber is former editor of the Financial Times. He is author of "The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times."

The unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Afghanistan, where a lightning offensive has overwhelmed government forces, with the Taliban entering Kabul on Sunday and President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country, carries echoes of the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.