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Sue Gordon, who served as a top U.S. intelligence official under both the Trump and Obama administrations, said Sunday that she would not characterize the American withdrawal from
Afghanistan "as an intelligence failure" despite widespread criticism oc how the Trump and Biden administrations, the U.S. military, and the intelligence community failed to anticipate how
swiftly the Taliban would overrun the Afghan government and security forces and take control of Kabul.
During an appearance on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation, Gordon said she thinks throughout the U.S.'s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan, the intelligence community remained "pretty
clear-eyed" about what was happening on the ground. And she believes that didn't really change last month, arguing that a leaked transcript of President Biden's last conversation with former
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani makes it seem clear the former knew the situation was "fraught." She did, however, acknowledge that "they apparently didn't have precision in their estimate on
the speed of the loss."
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys
writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
