One question stands out among the many: How could the most powerful country in the world, which annually spends hundreds of billions of dollars on its military and intelligence capabilities, have gotten our intelligence effort in Afghanistan so wrong?

When the Taliban rapidly advanced through Afghanistan’s major population centers last month, smashing Afghan forces and overthrowing the government in a matter of weeks, U.S. leaders were caught distressingly off guard. This led to the stunning scenes at the Kabul airport, where our military lost 13 lives rapidly trying to evacuate U.S. citizens and allies.