How misjudgments by the U.S. led to the stunningly fast takeover of the Taliban.<\/b>
\nThe last few days in Afghanistan have been chaotic, with the Taliban taking control of the capital, Kabul, much faster than the White House, journalists and even residents had expected. Thousands of Afghans attempted to get through the gates of Kabul\u2019s international airport on Monday in the hope of leaving the country. In a sign of the desperation, some even clung to the landing gear of a plane as it took off. The debacle can be traced to a number of assumptions that guided the execution of the U.S. withdrawal from the country after two decades of war. How could those assumptions have proved so wrong, so quickly? There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here\u2019s how. Transcripts of each episode are available by the next workday. You can find them at the top of the page. The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Annie Brown, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Austin Mitchell, Neena Pathak, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guillemette, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Kaitlin Roberts, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Soraya Shockley, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop and Chelsea Daniel. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Theo Balcomb, Cliff Levy, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller, Sofia Milan, Desiree Ibekwe, Erica Futterman, Wendy Dorr and Elizabeth Davis-Moorer.<\/p>\n