AP new does a look back at the man and the clues about how he move to depart Afghanistan when others did NOT….
President Biden is uneasy with projecting America Military power….
He’s been that way for a LONG while….
How Biden is handling the weight of his decision to end the war is a product of his nearly 50 years in public life, many of them spent studying the world. He sold voters on his experience and this is the first time he is offering decisions, not mere opinions in a Senate hearing — and he will be judged by the outcome, which is far from clear at this point. Americans are seeing a different side of Biden during this crisis, a sterner, sometimes testy man known much better for his empathy.
In the face of setbacks that would prompt most politicians to step back and offer some level of contrition, Biden has only grown firmer in his position this week. He has acknowledged that the Taliban advanced faster than expected but has said, both privately to aides and in a pair of public addresses to the American people, that the swift collapse of the Afghan government proved correct his longstanding skepticism of the war effort.
“If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” he said Monday, as he sought to sidestep blame for the disorderly withdrawal.
Biden’s decision laid bare a cold realism in his view of American military power: American forces shouldn’t be used to promote the nation’s ideals abroad.
Troops, in Biden’s estimation, should be focused more narrowly on threats to the homeland, and the nation’s diplomatic and economic might are the proper tools to uphold its values overseas. It’s a sentiment the White House believes Americans agree with after nearly two decades of endless conflicts, but one that comes with painful cost for tens of thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. occupation or thrived under it….
image….Sky News Australia