Without going into the article, I'm going to assume they hoped this list would be people who are let through the blockade?

Utterly stupid as it is, I also don't see what alternative would be materially better. Withold the list, and the same people on it can be swept up in random violence, denied entry, or something as bad.

What was absurd was giving the Taliban a deadline at all, with so many people left to evacuate. Keeping the date ambiguous while getting as many of these people out as possible would have been the way to go, I'd imagine.

Or, I dunno, taking the Taliban's deal back in 2001 that amounts to pretty much what ended up happening 21 years later, minus having Mullah Omar under house arrest (which was the main concession the Taliban wanted then), would have been the way to go.

Or maybe realizing that having the strongest military in terms of expensive equipment, but no courage in the face of actual losses on the ground, is not the kind of force you're going to get any results out of, would be the way to go.

America lost. And it seems it is determined to lose in the most obvious, stupid way possible.

If that teaches the American governments of the future to not go adventuring in other lands, maybe some small good will come of it, but I won't be holding my breath.