The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the disorganized and chaotic form it took reverberated in the United States and worldwide and led to criticisms undermining the Biden administration. The article seeks to answer why and how such scrambled departure could have happened. It shows that both immediate and previous long-term policies led to the collapse, as well as a lack of understanding in Washington of the historical background and complex nature of Afghanistan, its multi-ethnic composition and political specificity. The author poses the question of whether the actual U.S. defeat in Afghanistan and the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country could perhaps prompt the United States to reconsider its aspiration for global dominance and to reorient towards better prioritization of the needs of other countries and more focus on international cooperation - though any early indications of such a paradigm-changing trend are all but certain. Yet cooperation in policies towards Afghanistan remains essential. Keeping the situation in the country stable, as well as ensuring that there are no terrorist attacks from its territory and it does not present a threat to its neighbors is in the interest of both Russia and the United Sates.