Steve Coll on How the U.S. Pursued Withdrawal Over Peace in Afghanistan & Let the Taliban Take Over

As Afghanistan spirals into a humanitarian crisis after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal earlier this summer, we look at years of failed U.S. diplomacy that allowed the Taliban to seize power and leave the small nation in a state of disrepair. A New Yorker magazine investigation shows how the U.S. repeatedly undermined the Kabul-based government in a rush to leave the country. I've been reporting in general and around Afghanistan for a long time. I was still shocked by the degree of cynicism that the United States often brought to this endeavor to seek peace, particularly during the Trump years," says New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has covered Afghanistan for decades.