Joe Bidens Afghanistan ‘s Nightmare Star of the day

It is not at all clear why President Joe Biden deserves a disgraceful heap to escape the United States from Afghanistan. This is especially true given the end of other American wars and the near-impossible situation, especially as Kabul Airport is located within millions of cities that had just come under Taliban control.

Repeated clips showing panicked Afghans grabbing C-17 cargo planes after this were no longer more dramatic scenes than the smooth take-offs that followed over the next 17 days of evacuation, but the news programs continued to chaoticly reproduce the images, creating the impression of Biden. Yet about 120,000 people, including U.S. allied forces as well as Afghans who had helped the United States, were evacuated by air from Kabul, which was a logistical victory.

Because Biden decided to stop the evacuation on the 31st (A few have been evacuated since.) But Biden only made bad choices. Had he extended America’s presence, U.S. forces and allies would have been in danger, especially because of a branch of the murderous Islamic state that had launched a campaign of suicide bombings.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan has revealed much about the nature of Biden’s government and how he leads it. Although Donald Trump, who also wanted to get out of Afghanistan, failed to work for a settlement with the Taliban, Biden’s withdrawal decisions were largely supported by his long-held belief that when al-Qaeda was driven out of Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden was killed, America’s strategic needs were met. Despite his deep conviction of the correctness of the decisions, Biden caused problems for himself by providing happy predictions, such as that the Afghan government would not collapse soon. When this proved unrealistic, Biden became defensive, even militant, weakening his reputation as a nice guy.

Another factor that may have influenced Biden’s policy-making in Afghanistan is the striking difference between the president’s foreign and defense policy group and his domestic policy advisers. The latter consists of former mayors, governors, members of Congress, and at least one independent business executive. But his national security team is dominated by former aides. Soft-spoken Foreign Minister Antony Blinken is a loyal, long-time advisor to Biden. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, a youthful-looking 44-year-old, served as Biden’s National Security Adviser as Vice President. Biden often refers to the cohesiveness of his advisors as a confirmation of the wisdom of the decisions, but gets the strong impression that he is making it clear to them what advice he wants.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has an aura of independence and gravity. Austin speaks slowly and cautiously, and with the authority that comes almost naturally to a former four-star U.S. Army general. He reflects confidence without drama and keeps his views firm. The senator said, “I don’t want to play poker with him.” Austin managed to withdraw American troops from Iraq, where he had worked closely with the president’s dead son Beau. (Biden’s constant and Maudlin’s call to Beau, sometimes in really awkward moments, has begun to worry even some of his close allies.)

Republicans, frustrated in their search for effective ways to attack Biden, have seized the opportunity offered by the chaotic withdrawal despite the widespread popularity of the decision to end America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan. Despite this inconsistency among U.S. voters, Biden’s job approval ratings have fallen below 50 percent for the first time since the inauguration. Even some Democrats, fingers against the wind, are going to ask tricky questions to Biden and his team.

But what is Biden to blame? His administration is widely accused of not planning an evacuation, but Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has a lot to do with the White House, told me: “[The administration] there was a plan; they just didn’t expect to need it so quickly. “

Biden’s administration, though less furious and leaky than most (so far), follows a tradition of military and intelligence chiefs that differs significantly from its assessments of the quality of the Afghan army. The U.S. military has spent $ 83 billion on training and equipping the Afghan military. Intelligence services have been more skeptical. Kaine said: “We have been hearing conflicting assessments of the Afghan army for years.”

The former president of the United States used to tell the public the bright side of America’s efforts in Afghanistan. In a groundbreaking series published in 2019, The Washington Post revealed the lies that Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump told the country about how miraculously the war in Afghanistan is progressing. Thus, most Americans were not prepared for the sudden collapse of the Afghan army or the escape (with purses) of Afghan President Ashraf Ghan as the Taliban walked to Kabul.

Defense ministry officials demanded that no one warn them of the collapse of the Afghan army within 11 days, but this could be a failure of imagination and intelligence. In any case, there is intelligence and then intelligence is interpreted. The Bush administration, for example, had received ample evidence that al-Qaeda was preparing to attack the United States, even the World Trade Center, but leading figures overshadowed the warnings. France, acting with the same intelligence on Afghanistan as the U.S. government, began withdrawing its troops in 2014.

The upset Biden administration is now trying to change the subject out of Afghanistan by moving to domestic affairs. But liberation from the consequences of Afghan decisions, even if justified, may take longer than the administration imagines.

Elizabeth Drew is a Washington-based journalist and author “Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Crash.”

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2021

www.project-syndicate.org

(Only Star of the day)