In Kabul on Sunday night, hundreds of people rushed across an airport tarmac to board planes

out of Afghanistan.

There were no lines, there was no indirect foot traffic, people held hands as they snaked

through the crowd, shouting over the din, clutching children, others climbed awkwardly

into the back of a US cargo jet.

By daybreak, young men could be seen sprinting down a runway alongside a military plane

as it prepared for lift-off.

Some of the men had clasped their bodies onto the sides of the jet, desperate to flee

their country as the Taliban asserted control.

It's a tragic and largely preventable situation.

Fred Kaplan writes the war stories column for slate.

We spoke Monday morning, a day after Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani fled the country and

Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Yeah, now this is, you know, both substantively and politically.

This is exactly the sort of image that Biden never dreamed that he would have to confront,

right?

Mr. President, thank you very much.

Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse.

That is not true.

This was Biden answering questions from reporters just a month ago.

It was July 8th.

The US had just turned off the lights at its main air base, north of Kabul.

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