When the United States finally left Afghanistan amid the chaos that claimed the lives of 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service personnel on Aug. 30, 2021, at Hamid Karzai International Airport, it was not the most disastrous retreat from Kabul ever suffered.

In January 1842, nearly 16,000 souls, mostly civilian men, women and children, escaped from Kabul under the command of British Major General William Elphinstone headed for Jalalabad 90 miles away. Only one survived — the surgeon William Brydon.

But for the Biden administration, this incident brought back memories of the last helicopter lifting off the U.S. Embassy in Saigon as the North conquered South Vietnam. And the incompetence of this noncombatant evacuation will be an issue in the 2024 election.

Unfortunately, that such an outcome would occur was predictable.

The rule of thumb is that any crisis that one administration inherits from its predecessor in which force is used, will only get worse. And if that crisis explodes in the first months of the new administration, it will be a disaster. History is clear.

The Nixon administration inherited the Vietnam War from the Kennedy-Johnson administration. It would take five years before the United........

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