Biden’s Afghanistan policy relies on war-weary Americans to lose interest

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US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the crisis in Afghanistan during a speech in the East Room of the White House in Washington, United States, August 16, 2021. REUTERS / Leah Millis

WASHINGTON, Aug.20 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden dismisses criticism of his administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as he and his aides believe political fallout to the country will be limited, according to White House allies and officials administration.

Biden and his senior associates say they are handling an evacuation mission as well as one would expect given the faster-than-expected takeover of the country by the Taliban insurgents, and are looking to attract the attention to the choice to get American troops out of the country.

The strategy is based on internal and public polls which show the withdrawal from Afghanistan was by far the most popular decision Biden has made, even though the issue was not central to most voters.

“Public opinion is pretty clear that the Americans wanted to get out of the current war and don’t want to come back to it. It is true today and it will be true in six months,” said a Biden ally. . “It’s not about not caring or being empathetic about what’s going on there, it’s about worrying about what’s going on in America.”

Biden has been criticized even by some fellow Democrats for his handling of the crisis.

But White House officials believe Americans’ horror at the graphic images of chaos in Kabul and appeals from Afghans fearful of being killed by the Taliban will turn into support for the president’s decision to pull troops out of the country. country by August 31 after a 20-year war.

They expect Afghanistan’s story to move away from the headlines, replaced by resurgent COVID-19 cases, economic recovery and other challenges, people familiar with the matter said.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Biden is scheduled to speak on Afghanistan at the White House at 1:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT). White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield, in an interview with MSNBC on Friday, did not say whether the president would answer questions from reporters.

Biden’s aides refined the talking points weeks ago to be used even in the worst withdrawal scenarios, some of which have occurred, including stressing that leaving Afghanistan was the right decision.

“The idea that somehow there is a way out of this without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden told ABC News on Wednesday. . “There is no good time to leave Afghanistan. Fifteen years ago would have been a problem, in 15 years. The basic choice is will I send your sons and daughters to war in Afghanistan in perpetuity? ”

In recent days, Biden has also assaulted the Afghan military for not fighting, denounced the now ousted Afghan government and said he inherited a bad withdrawal deal from his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

The strategy carries obvious risks, according to political experts.

“The concern is that this will undermine his credibility as commander-in-chief,” said Jim Manley, once a key aide to former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “If the Taliban go back to what they did in the past, and I guess they will, there will be a lot of bad images coming out of this country.”

INSUFFICIENT RESPONSE

Messages about Afghanistan are increasingly at odds with a nascent consensus within the administration that White House, Defense and State departments as well as the planning of the U.S. intelligence community for the current situation were inadequate and need to be fully reconsidered – once the mission to evacuate the key people from Afghanistan is complete and the 5,200 US troops currently in Kabul have departed.

“We are in the Pentagon and even we know it could have been better,” an official said. “Much better.” Members of the US Congress are also planning to investigate what went wrong.

Public opinion, at least for now, is mixed. A majority of Republican and Democratic voters say the rapid collapse of the Afghan government “is proof that the United States should withdraw from the conflict.”

A Reuters / Ipsos poll this week found that 31% of American adults agreed with the United States continuing its military operations in Afghanistan, compared with 25% who thought the same in a 2012 poll.

Yet the Ipsos poll conducted on Monday also showed that less than half of Americans appreciated the way Biden had led the US military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan this year. They currently rate his performance worse than the three other presidents who presided over America’s longest war, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump.

Biden’s overall approval fell to 46% of American adults in Reuters / Ipsos polls, the lowest recorded in weekly polls since taking office in January.

Republicans, including Trump, began to arm the pullout as a problem to undermine confidence in Biden as commander-in-chief.

Most Democrats are likely to embrace public support for the pullout decision, and the problem is expected to go away before the November 2022 congressional election, said an adviser working on Democratic Congressional campaigns.

She added, however, “The Biden administration will likely have to defend every negative headline that comes out of Afghanistan during his tenure, so it’s a real unknown.”

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Patricia Zengerle and Chris Kahn; Editing by Heather Timmons, Peter Cooney and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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