For U.S. President Joe Biden, withdrawing the remaining American troops from Afghanistan is a recognition of the inevitable after 20 years of war with no clear victory in sight. The president’s critics argue it will obliterate U.S. leverage over the Taliban, and doom the country’s few but fragile gains.
Biden, speaking Wednesday from the same room where President George W. Bush announced the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, cast his decision as the ultimate buck-stops-here moment, delivering on a commitment that three previous presidents had made but failed to fulfill.
He would finally end the longest of the country’s "forever wars,” refusing to risk more taxpayer funds — and American blood — on a far-away conflict.