Yesterday in one of the newsletters I subscribe to from National Geographic, the publication’s senior executive editor, Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, explained the events happening in Afghanistan. Lakshmanan was in the first convoy of reporters to reach the southern Afghan city of Kandahar the day after the Taliban regime was ousted from its final stronghold. If you need a good overview of what’s happening with historical context, the newsletter is worth the read. “More than two trillion U.S. taxpayer dollars were invested and 170,000 mostly Afghan lives lost over 20 years, according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University. The monumental effort was meant to support a more democratic, equitable, and inclusive government than the Taliban or the anarchy and patchwork of mujahideen and communist regimes and emirates that preceded it. What is there to show now for that high price?” Lakshmanan wrote.