This was Biden’s decision and he deserves all of the scorn he gets for it, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Trump administration made this choice an easy one for him. If Trump had his druthers, we would have left even earlier, and the Taliban’s takeover would be just as assured (Trump himself congratulated Biden’s “wonderful” decision to withdraw). It may not have happened as quickly — but the strategic goal was the same: abandon the Afghans, the same way he abandoned the Kurds.

Perhaps what is most infuriating about this debacle is how its defenders, on the left and right, cling to the idea that they are the sober realists. We should only go to war when it is in our narrow, vital, self-interest they thunder, forgetting we invaded Afghanistan in the first place for precisely such reasons, with the most bipartisan support for use of force since we declared war on Japan.

The Biden administration justified our withdrawal on the grounds that we need to switch to more serious geopolitical rivalries, as with China. Maybe we do. But doing so didn’t require pulling a few thousand troops and contractors from Afghanistan. More importantly, does anyone truly believe that this self-inflicted blow to our national honor will improve our standing in the world? The signal sent to Taiwan — and China — is that we can’t be counted on.