Observer comments

There seems to be a general comment along the lines of "Biden botched the evacuations because these were not started earlier." Were such evacuations possible??? Let's back up a few months.

a) the US troop withdrawal timing was already public.

b) a few months ago, seems unlikely that the US would publicly state that "the Afghan govt will soon fall, so plan on getting out soon" to US citizens and Afghan allies. Without clearly saying "the Afghan govt will soon fall, Taliban will be here soon", seems like the # of persons responding to any officially-organized evacuations would be few...

c) of course, US citizens and Afghan allies could have made their own judgements about the Afghan govt and possible Taliban take-over timing, and get out on their own.

Seems like all concerned were caught off guard by the speed of Taliban take-over.