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The Taliban has stunned even some seasoned military and national security officials in the U.S. government with the speed of its conquests over the past week, sources with direct knowledge of the developments tell Axios.

Why it matters: President Biden isn't budging — resolved to get out by Aug. 31, no matter what — people briefed on his thinking say. He may not see much of a pause between his total withdrawal from Afghanistan and the country's total collapse into a bloody civil war.

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Carter Malkasian is the author of The American War in Afghanistan: A History. He served as a civilian advisor in Iraq and Afghanistan and was the senior advisor to General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from 2015 to 2019.

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The US military has temporarily suspended air operations at Kabul airport while US troops try to clear Afghans who have flooded onto the airfield in a desperate rush to escape the Taliban, a US defense official told CNN.

The suspension comes amid reports of chaos at the airport, where the US has moved all its embassy personnel. Some Afghans have reportedly rushed departing planes, making frantic attempts to scramble onto and then cling to the aircraft as they took off. Gunfire has been reportedly heard around the airport as well. CNN has not been able to independently confirm these reports, but the military is now moving to clear and secure the runways.
The suspension is in effect "while we make sure the airfield is secure," the US defense official told CNN.

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The publisher of The Washington Post pleaded with the White House on Monday to have the U.S. military move to safety more than 200 journalists and related people affiliated with the Post, Wall Street Journal and New York Times who are “in danger” at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.

Post Publisher Fred Ryan asked National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in an “urgent request” email to have them moved from the civilian side of Hamid Karzai International Airport “to the military side where they can be safe as they await evacuation flights.”

“They are currently in danger and need the US government to get them to safety,” Ryan wrote in the email, which he said he was writing on behalf of the three newspapers.

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The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction painted a troubling picture of America’s 20 years in Afghanistan on Tuesday, concluding that the U.S. government consistently underestimated the time required to rebuild the country and misunderstood its context during America's longest war.

"If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that can sustain itself and pose little threat to U.S. national security interests, the overall picture is bleak,” John Sopko, the SIGAR, wrote in the report, titled “What We Need to Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction.”

The report was based on 13 years of oversight work, including 760 interviews with people such as current and former policymakers, military officers and experts. Though the SIGAR concluded that America’s intervention in Afghanistan had “bright spots,” including lower child mortality rates and higher literacy rates, the report also questioned whether these gains are “commensurate with the U.S. investment or sustainable after a U.S. drawdown.”