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Nick Schifrin:

It has been one year since the Taliban took over Afghanistan amid the Afghan government collapse and the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

To get some perspective on what happened and why, we turn to Ashraf Ghani, the former president of Afghanistan.

Mr. President, thank you very much. Welcome back to the "NewsHour."

Let's start with your departure from Kabul.

Last May, on this program, you said: "I will not abandon my people. I will not abandon my forces. I'm willing to die for my country."

But, three months later, on August 15, you left Kabul. And you recently said you left because you didn't want to give the Taliban quote "the pleasure of humiliating an Afghan president."

Was avoiding humiliation worth abandoning the country?

Ashraf Ghani, Former President of Afghanistan: I firmly committed to defending my people, our own forces in the public to the last minute I could.

I left as the last person in the chain of command because our forces could no longer sustain. I had no one to fight with me. It was not a situation where sacrificing myself would have saved the republic.

On the contrary, it would have created another trauma. And we have had enough of trauma in our history.

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Afghanistan's former president on the Taliban takeover - PBS NewsHour