United States of America eSeries: The retreat is underway

The retreat is underway

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August 13, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'The real part of the clown show'

The retreat is underway.

America's response to a Taliban blitzkrieg in Afghanistan is the most eloquent expression of President Joe Biden's policy of leaving his nation's longest war. Emergency meetings in the White House and the Pentagon did not produce a hurried plan to stop the fundamentalist militia in its tracks. Instead, Washington will send more than 3,000 troops to protect US diplomats and to prepare the way for potential evacuations. Officials are also thinking of actually moving the US Embassy to Kabul airport. Being right next to a runway is useful if hurried departures suddenly become necessary.

The Biden administration is of course doing exactly what governments should do in hostile situations abroad — keeping its people safe. But the US operation is also clearly about preventing the one aspect of the crisis that could really damage Biden: potential Benghazi-style deaths of US personnel that, while tragic in themselves, would turn into a huge political disaster back home.

When Biden decided to pull out all US troops from Afghanistan, it's reasonable to assume that his aides gamed out all political ramifications. Though the pace at which the Taliban have gobbled up territory has shocked many in Washington, the rather humiliating US exit appears unlikely to change the political dynamics in the US. The war, forgotten for much of the last decade, is unpopular. Americans are done with draining foreign conflict. So any political heat Biden gets from the withdrawal is likely to be among GOP hawks and Washington foreign policy experts and journalists rather than among the people who really matter: voters.

Of course, this is a narrow, US political argument. The return of Taliban rule across Afghanistan will have massive humanitarian consequences and loss of freedoms for the citizens of the war-torn country itself. It could provoke destabilizing refugee flows. Where chaos reigns, extremists like Al-Qaeda can flourish. History suggests that the vacuum left by the US departure will be filled with US antagonists, like Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia, in the Great Game in Central Asia. And history will record that yet another vast empire — America's — was humbled in a nation that has forgotten what peace feels like.

Afghan women could lose basic rights to work and education under Taliban rule.

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'The real part of the clown show'

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Elizabeth Story, an anti-masker parent, in Franklin, Tennessee.

Leigh-Allyn Baker, another parent at the same meeting.

And fellow Franklin parent Daniel Jordan issued a stern threat.

Thanks for spending your week with us.

Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Spain is expecting a dangerous heat wave. Climate activists plan to gather at the headquarters of the European Central Bank.

Saturday is the deadline for civil servants in Fiji to get their mandatory first vaccinations. Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat candidate for Germany's next chancellor, will kick off his campaign in the western city of Bochum.

And on Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation from New Delhi's historic Red Fort. It's the last day for Americans to enroll in insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act for this year.