After two decades in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden did not waver from his promise to withdraw the military from this battle-scarred country, even as the Taliban were sweeping across the provinces, gaining territory and cities on their way to Kabul. The Panjshir Valley, once the stronghold of Taliban opponent Ahmad Shah Massoud that valiantly held out in the 1990s, was captured quickly this time. Likewise with Kabul, the relatively worldly capital city, where military and police personnel took off their uniforms and dispersed, while the international airport was crowded with refugees, and the American flag was removed from the embassy as a helicopter airlifted the last diplomats in a scene identical to the fall of Saigon.