I’ve tried to write a column on Afghanistan several times over the last two weeks, but it evolved only into angry tweetstorms.

I began covering Afghanistan in 1993 and worked counterterrorism throughout my entire career, so the withdrawal of U.S. forces earlier this week engendered deep, painful, and conflicting emotions. In my view, two successive U.S. administrations engaged in historically poor diplomacy with the Taliban, ultimately leading to an ignominious end to the two-decade conflict.