This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, July 16th, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The U.S. departure from Afghanistan is underway, and yet it's clear the White House doesn't

want to give up authorities to go back into the country

or be compelled to end bombing in Afghanistan.

So the question is, if the bombs continue to fall, is the war really ending?

John Glazer directs foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.

We spoke this week.

As of this recording, the United States has not yet been in Afghanistan

for 20 full years, but it's certainly the better part of that 20th year.

So what am I missing?

Why do I have less hope about this departure than the headlines would seem to

indicate I should have? Well I think that's natural and understandable. It was

always known even among advocates of withdrawal like myself that, you know, the withdrawal would be associated with the time period of chaos.

There's been a civil war slash insurgency brewing in Afghanistan for the entirety of this

nearly 20 year long US presence, but the insurgency is not over. The Taliban are still alive and well. The 90% of the way there or so and the Taliban have been sort of on the rampage, gaining territory in

northern Afghanistan, obtaining checkpoints and border crossings and collecting taxes on the local population as well as on

imported goods.

Violence is up, you know, the refugee crisis has increased in the past two weeks, five or six thousand

people have fled.

Since January, I think the number of newly displaced people is something like 270,000.

Civilian casualties are up in the last few weeks,

...