| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a gold standard of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here.  It's long been obvious Afghanistan would never be a Jeffersonian democracy, but the speed with which it is returning to a medieval theocracy is still alarming. Let's just say mistakes were made. For one thing, proponents of America's costly campout in the graveyard of empires never squared what they saw as a necessary engagement with the electorate's deep aversion to such engagements, Tyler Cowen writes. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden simply made good on the ambivalence their predecessors and voters had felt for 20 years. Instead of just criticizing the American people for their softness, hawks might try drawing up a more sustainable, realistic approach to foreign policy. Another mistake was trying to build an Afghan army using a U.S. model, writes James Stavridis. The resulting weak imitation vaporized like a soap bubble on a chain-link fence. A better approach would have been using the forms Afghan society provided to make fighting forces that were more autonomous, mobile and localized. But America can stop making mistakes any day now. Calling a do-over on the withdrawal probably won't happen, but there are still things the Biden administration and its allies can do to limit the damage, writes Bloomberg LP founder Mike Bloomberg. Protecting the Afghan people who helped them would be a great start. Using diplomacy and force when necessary to keep the country from becoming a terrorist haven will also be key. On that front, other countries need to help. Any revival of al-Qaeda monkey-bar camps will subject not just the U.S. and its allies but all of Afghanistan's neighbors to greater risk of terrorism, writes Ruth Pollard. That means China, Russia and Iran now have an Afghanistan problem, too. But nobody's more at risk than the Afghan people. In a second column, Ruth Pollard writes many are terrified of what comes next as their meager hopes of progress die. America's mistakes in Afghanistan will haunt its survivors and its foreign policy for a long time, but at least it gets to leave. All these Afghanis can do is try to cling hopelessly to a fleeing airplane. Fifty years ago — and five years before he oversaw America's retreat from another foreign-policy debacle — President Richard Nixon took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard. Some people still rue this day. But John Authers writes America isn't going back to gold without some kind of massive shock to the financial system. An inflationary crisis might do the trick. We're not there yet — even though, as John Authers points out in a second column, the Pax Volckeria we've enjoyed for 40 years is under threat like never before. But just try telling that to the stock market, writes Mohamed El-Erian. Rather than returning to the gold standard, a post-greenback world could end up on some sort of crypto standard, writes Niall Ferguson. The worst thing U.S. regulators could do, in his opinion, is to try stopping that. They should, however, keep income inequality in mind as they oversee the transition to digital currencies, writes Karen Petrou. It's not something policy makers thought about back in 1970, and unfortunately it kinda shows today. Between the crisis in Afghanistan, growing inflation fears and Covid's fresh surge, Biden is having a bad month. Little wonder, then, that his rock-steady approval rating has finally dipped a bit, writes Jonathan Bernstein. Will it matter? Probably not, Jonathan writes. He chalks up the dip mainly to people being bummed about Covid's resurgence, and Americans generally don't blame Biden for that. They mainly blame each other, as perhaps they should. Still, Biden's "summer of freedom" is going about as well as the Summer of George. A whole bunch of men became dads for the first time during the pandemic, and they're conditioned to spending time with their kids and splitting parenting duties more equitably, writes Conor Sen. They won't easily accept the old normal, nor should they. Hedge funds are starting to demand money back from SPACs, which is bad news for the companies and (some) investors involved, writes Chris Bryant.  America's fiscal policy is a hot mess. Here's how to fix it. — Bloomberg's editorial board Child care should be more affordable, but Biden's plan would do the opposite. — Michael R. Strain California's water crisis may not be as apocalyptic as it seems. — Frank Wilkinson Voters don't want to sacrifice enough to fight climate change. — Matthew Yglesias China and India's outmoded nationalism is the biggest threat to the climate. — Pankaj Mishra It turns out Alexander Hamilton was Jewish. — Justin Fox Covid deaths in Florida and other hot spots hit pandemic highs. U.S. officials are probing Tesla's autopilot system. Michael Burry is betting against Cathie Wood. Other species' metabolisms also slow with age. (h/t Ellen Kominers) Murder hornets are back. (h/t Mike "Fun Murderer" Smedley) Attention, shoppers: Your faces are being tracked. It's not easy being rational.  Notes: Thanks to Tara Lachapelle and Justin Fox for handling the newsletter last week, and to Bobby Ghosh for handling it a few weeks back. Please send plums and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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