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Politico | ‘Clearly botched’: Biden White House under assault on Afghanistan drawdown
- Joe Biden’s foreign policy experience fails him as Taliban quickly seize Kabul
- White House in damage control over lack of preparedness with US exit
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This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Natasha Korecki and Christopher Cadelago on politico.com on August 15, 2021.
US President Joe Biden long touted his foreign policy credentials as a core asset he’d bring to the Oval Office. And once he was in the White House, he proudly proclaimed “America is back” on the world stage.
Instead, chaos and confusion dominated his first major foreign policy decision – the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
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Far from bringing a return to stability as he promised, it has led to the sort of imagery he insisted would not take place on his watch: scenes of American diplomats fleeing the US embassy by helicopter as the Taliban tightened their noose around Kabul.
All day Sunday the White House fended off a firestorm of criticism – rushing Secretary of State Antony Blinken onto Sunday cable shows to attempt damage control. Then Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley briefed Capitol Hill lawmakers, some of whom railed against what they called a lack of preparedness by the Biden administration. Overwhelmed by pleas from those attempting to exit the country safely and the need for expedited visas, the Pentagon announced an emergency deployment of additional troops, soon to total 6,000 on the ground in Afghanistan.
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