“Rest assured: When the histories are written, there will be enough blame for all to share. For today, too much sorrow.” In WaPo (gift article for ND readers), David Ignatius on the the attack the administration saw coming but couldn’t stop : At a badly shaken White House, ‘sadness and horror.’ It was a tragic day for Afghans and an unthinkable loss for the military families whose loved ones were just days away from leaving Afghanistan. It was also sad that the loss of life was met with the same old political finger pointing in DC. Terrorists attack America. And Americans attack each other. Our biggest threat is from within. I also couldn’t help but think that if all service deaths in Afghanistan had been covered this urgently and completely, we would have been gone a long time ago. During all of last year, the national evening newscasts on CBS, ABC, and NBC devoted just five minutes to Afghanistan coverage.

+ Meanwhile, under continued threats, the evacuation continues. More than 110,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul. The latest from BBC.

+ Tom Nichols in The Atlantic: “This operation was never going to go smoothly, but we will need to know, in the aftermath of the biggest single day of U.S. casualties in 10 years, whether it had to be this bad. The more immediate question, however, is what to do next. Blame-storming might be satisfying, but it’s not a policy.” A Bungled Mess.

+ The Conversation: What is ISIS-K?

+ “Like a black hole with its own gravitational pull, Afghanistan could draw the C.I.A. back into a complex counterterrorism mission for years to come.” NYT (gift article of ND readers): Amid Afghan Chaos, a C.I.A. Mission That Will Persist for Years.