Twenty years of investment that cost $2 trillion and nearly 2,500 US lives were disintegrating within days as the Islamist insurgents seized two of the largest cities with little resistance and closed in on the capital Kabul.
Republican rivals predictably attacked Biden but he also faced the most critical coverage of his presidency, with television networks juxtaposing images of Afghanistan’s collapse with his remarks a little more than a month ago that “the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
In a scathing editorial, The Washington Post said that Biden had put at risk the real progress in Afghanistan since 2001 including education for girls, banned by the Taliban when they last ruled.
“Afghan lives ruined or lost will belong to Mr. Biden’s legacy just as surely as any US dollars and lives his decision may save,” the newspaper wrote.
The United States was rushing back 3,000 troops — roughly the same number removed in this month’s final withdrawal — to evacuate embassy staff and was flying out Afghans whose work with US forces puts them at risk. READ MORE
