What are the consequences of the calamitous Afghanistan pullout for Biden?

The scenes of chaos in Kabul have rebounded badly on Joe Biden, writes Sean O’Grady, as he considers what the US president can do to restore faith among the electorate

Joe Biden is doubling down on the US decision to retreat (Getty)

At first sight, and despite the international condemnation, President Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan even before the poignant 11 September deadline should have been electorally popular. For some years America’s seemingly indefinite involvement in conflicts around the world, especially Afghanistan and Iraq, has met with increasing disillusion among the US public, with consistent majorities in favour of getting out. Those politicians, including Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who openly advocated disengagement and bringing the troops home were the ones who won elections. The trend has been increasingly isolationist and anti-globalist. It was one reason why Trump enjoyed fanatical support in some quarters. With midterm elections coming up next year, and a feeble grip on Congress, it seems sensible for Joe Biden to align himself with this America First attitude, and shift away from America being the world’s cop. Now that the pullout from Afghanistan has actually happened, however, the scenes of chaos and talk of humiliation and retreat have rebounded badly on the president. It seems Americans wanted a withdrawal, but not the withdrawal that actually happened.

The popularity of the war in Afghanistan has been in more or less continual decline since it began. After the traumas of 9/11 around 90 per cent of the public backed President George W Bush’s policy of military action, which happened to be sanctioned by the United Nations and Nato. No matter that he had only recently been elected on a platform that stressed domestic priorities such as education and the economy, after Bill Clinton’s human rights driven interventions in the Balkans, America had to defend itself, and hit back. The cause was just, the methods seem right, and the support was overwhelming.