The terrible denouement of the Afghan War was actually widely anticipated by military and civilian officials years earlier. The reasons, which boil down to American hubris and exceptionalism, are strikingly similar to those that led to defeat in Vietnam. As an author of the Pentagon Papers, I examine US policymaking with comparisons to what the Afghanistan Papers have uncovered. A fuller version of this podcast, with sources and charts, can be found on my blog site, https://melgurtov.com, Post #308.