Intelligence assessments asserted that the Afghan military would be able to hold off the Taliban for months, though the number of months kept dwindling as the Taliban conquered terrain more quickly than the analysts had predicted. But as August began, the grim future of Afghanistan seemed to exist in the distance, beyond the end of the month, not on America’s watch.
That grim future arrived disastrously ahead of schedule.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/10/afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-decision/675116/