convince the united states that it would be a better idea to withdraw in phases, where he tried to convince them to extend that deadline, he couldn't answer those basic questions, and, most tellingly of all, it was clear that, having had 18 months to prepare and four and a half months in which they had known that the 31st of august was the date by which all british troops, all british staff, all british nationals in the afghans who helped us would need to be evacuated, while some countries like france had put those measures and placements and months ago, his department had been the weakest link in a very weak chain and hadn't put in a very weak chain and hadn't put in place basic resources here in the uk in order to deal with the inevitable applications they'd have to process. but inevitable applications they'd have to rocess. �* . to process. but if the intelligence that the foreign _ to process. but if the intelligence that the foreign secretary - to process. but if the intelligence that the foreign secretary is - that the foreign secretary is working to does not exactly pinned down quite how fast the taliban were going to progress and retake kabul and it took a lot of people buy supplies, he is making decisions through no fault of his own, surely,