Doyle McManus: Kabul’s fall was a debacle, but long-term impact hasn’t been as catastrophic as feared

WASHINGTON — One year ago, as President Joe Biden was withdrawing the last American troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban swept into Kabul and abruptly brought a 20-year, $2.3 trillion U.S. war to an ignominious end.

It was Biden’s worst foreign policy failure, and prompted warnings that more catastrophes would follow: not only the tragedy of Taliban rule over 38 million Afghans, but a resurgence of international terrorism and a collapse of U.S. influence around the world.

“It is hard to overstate the damage to U.S. credibility wreaked by this fiasco,” wrote Kori Schake of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “The disastrous withdrawal will make it harder for Washington to put together [international] coalitions in the future.”