The chaos that ensued following the hasty withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan may have been prevented had U.S. President Joe Biden executed a more gradual and protracted pullout, military experts say.

“So much of this is about a dialogue and about communicating a message to the Afghans and to the world that you are transitioning in an orderly fashion,” said retired major-general David Fraser, who commanded more than 2,000 NATO coalition troops during Operation Medusa in the Afghan province of Kandahar in 2006.

“Wars today are not won in a battle. They are bloody, ugly, complicated, messy things that kind of whimper away. They don’t end with