What the president did not mention in his haste to shift blame to the Afghans was that our premature withdrawal of military support left the Afghan army virtually inoperable. When we stopped American air support—without warning—and halted all logistical assistance, it was like cutting off a diver’s air supply. But the president opted to explain the asphyxiation of the Afghan war effort on Afghan cowardice. Cowardice was on display, but not on the part of an Afghan army that lost tens of thousands fighting—and not just on behalf of their country, but on behalf of ours.

That is the most crucial factor here. The Taliban is not some autarkic Islamist Brigadoon shrouded in the mists of the Hindu Kush, determined to live in hermit-like isolation, satiating itself with purely domestic barbarity. It is a terrorist organization, full stop. Those trying to forecast how the politics of this debacle will play out often say we need to “wait and see” if al-Qaeda “moves back into Afghanistan.” Al-Qaeda never left. As our own Tom Joscelyn has been chronicling literally for two decades, al-Qaeda is essentially the foreign legion of the Taliban. It has never renounced al-Qaeda. How could it? The Taliban’s leadership is intertwined with al-Qaeda’s, its members connected not just by ideology but by profitable businesses, faith, and even blood. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s top leader, has sworn bayat—an oath of loyalty—to successive Taliban leaders.

The best case for leaving some American troops in Afghanistan was never grounded in talk of “nation building” or love of “forever wars,” but in America’s core national security interest. Preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan is in our interest because the Taliban is our enemy. Politicians in both parties, with precious few exceptions, have refused to tell this hard truth to the American people.