Biden heads into uncertain political territory amid Afghanistan’s collapse

US president stands by decision to leave. But the swift downfall might rattle the confidence of allies, writes Eric Garcia

President Joe Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Washington (AP)

President Joe Biden is facing shaky unknown political consequences after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban quicker than expected amid his plan to withdraw US troops by the end of this month.

Mr Biden cut short a visit to Camp David to address the situation on Monday as media reports during the weekend showed Afghan people clinging to planes departing from Kabul, and Taliban leaders in the Afghan presidential palace. The images contrast with the US president’s pledge last month that “there’s going to be no circumstance where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy of the United States from Afghanistan”, when there was, in fact, video of just that.

But in his address to the American people, the president did not back down from his decision to withdraw from the nation despite the turmoil.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” he said. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces. That’s why we’re still there.”

Still, Mr Biden admitted the images were “gut-wrenching” and admitted that the chaos “did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated”.

Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told The Independent that the rapid decline in Afghanistan sends a message that the United States is not a reliable ally.

“If you are on the US team, your chances of being abandoned are much higher than, say, if you are aligned with Moscow or Beijing,” he said. In addition, Mr Ibish said that while everyone recognises that the former president Donald Trump initiated the withdrawal, people are still astounded by how poor the United States’ intelligence was and how incompetently managed the exit was.

“It has the odour of a power in decline. People are thinking in terms of Suez and thinking in terms of a flailing of a country that has bitten off more than it can chew,” he said.

Mr Biden did explain that the fall of the nation “did unfold more quickly than we anticipated”, but squarely blamed political leaders in Afghanistan, who he said “gave up and fled the country”, claiming the Afghan military collapsed without even “trying to fight”.

“If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” he said. “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

The president also said that when he hosted the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, and chair of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, he told them they should be able to fight the wars after the United States exited and to clean up corruption.

“They failed to do any of that,” he said, noting how Mr Ghani insisted the Afghan forces would fight. “But obviously he was wrong.”

But not everyone thought Mr Biden’s decision would hurt him.

“I think the American public already sees that the president made the right decision,” Democratic congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts said, adding that despite investing heavily in the country, “we have seen nothing from the Afghan government but corruption and incompetence”.

Mr Auchincloss, who served in Afghanistan, also said Republicans don’t have any credibility to criticise the Biden administration’s plan, given that the war in Afghanistan started under Republican President George W Bush.

“This is the party of Donald Trump that turned their backs on the Kurds,” he said. “Republicans have been the architects of this failed counterinsurgency approach to Afghanistan.”

Indeed, while some Republicans are trying to criticise the president, the Republican National Committee wiped its page touting Trump’s deal with the Taliban.

At the same time, the Biden administration is facing a push from many to allow for the evacuation of as many Afghan allies such as interpreters, as well as many refugees.

“The United States needs to keep its pledge that when you help us, we will help you,” Mr Auchincloss said. At the same time, as Nu Wexler, a Democratic political communications professional who himself was brought to the United States from Vietnam, noted, the only time people were willing to accept refugees was during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

“The history of the US is rooted in Ellis Island. America has a rich history there. But if you are going to make decisions based on politics and polling, it takes you to a different place every time,” he said. “They need to find the courage to make hard choices.”

Last month, the president signed legislation that passed on a bipartisan basis to increase funding for both Capitol security and to assist with special immigrant visas for Afghans who worked with the United States.

Mr Biden said in his address that the US has already moved 2,000 Afghans eligible for the visas and their families into the United States, adding that the US military would work to move more eligible applicants and their families into the country. He added that the status would be expanded to those who worked for the US embassy, non-governmental organisations and Afghans who are at risk.

“I know there is concern about why we did not begin evacuating Afghan civilians sooner,” he said. “Some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier, still hopeful for their country.” He added that Afghan government officials and supporters discouraged a mass exodus because they did not want to trigger “a crisis of confidence”.

But there is already a sign that there will be Republican opposition to adding more refugees.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that Biden & his radical deputies will use their catastrophic debacle in Afghanistan as a pretext for doing to America what Angela Merkel did to Germany & Europe,” Stephen Miller, the former Trump administration official, tweeted on Sunday evening.