Out of sight, out of mind? Biden’s calamitous decision on Afghanistan

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Abstract

Despite severe concerns by members of his own military top brass and security circles, on 14 April, 2021, US President Joe Biden announced the unconditional withdrawal of all combat troops by 11 September of the same year. The US does not only thereby relinquish the opportunity to conduct counter-insurgency campaigns against the Taliban, it will also lose any capacity to conduct counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups present on the ground.1 Furthermore, this stands in sharp contrast to his own earlier points of view, particularly those held as Vice-President (2009-2017), when under President Obama he advocated for a less troop-intensive but more engaged counter-terrorism presence in Afghanistan. Despite much disenchantment regarding nation-building efforts, endemic corruption, and the inability to bring stability to the country despite a massive troop surge, Biden was then not willing to abandon Afghanistan. President Biden obviously changed his opinion – to the disadvantage of the Afghan state and society. […]