All of this was inevitable, according to Joe Biden. “No,” the president insisted when asked if he really believed the process of abandoning Afghanistan, its people, and our allies with inexplicable rapidity had been bungled. “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden insisted. That stubborn lack of imagination is the problem.

At this hour, Americans remain at large behind Taliban lines, sacrificed by their government. We are dependent upon a terrorist militia for our security and safety. The United States engineered this debacle, and the president has no interest in authorizing an operation that could save the thousands of Americans we’ve summarily abandoned. He could change course at any point, but he just won’t do it. This is, I would argue, the worst dereliction of presidential responsibility and the most sordid example of maladministration in my four decades of life. And apparently, that is exactly how Washington wants it.