A year after the fall of Kabul, the consequences are being felt from the American point of view. One word comes back when the fall of Kabul and the ensuing American withdrawal are mentioned: chaotic “.
With our correspondent in Washington, Guillaume Naudin
A withdrawal ” chaotic “, It is the least we can say. Only a few weeks after the departure of the last American soldiers, the highest officials of the Pentagon recognized a strategic failure. What the US military and the Biden administration did not anticipate was such a rapid collapse of the Afghan military and state.
When it becomes clear that Kabul is going to fall, everything is done in a hurry. Three thousand soldiers are deployed to secure the withdrawal of American nationals still there. We see the embassy evacuated by air, which had not been seen since the fall of Saigon in Vietnam. The images are terrible for the United States. Like the pictures of what happens at the airport during evacuation with thousands of Afghans trying at all costs to get on planes.
The chaos is total, and it culminates with the attack of August 26 signed by the Islamic State organization which will kill 182 people including 13 American soldiers near the airport.
Joe Biden in question
All of this puts Joe Biden in big trouble. This is the beginning of his fall in popularity. The American president must intervene to assume his responsibilities and defend his choices. He tries to explain that it was necessary to put an end to a war of twenty years and that there was no good solution for that. His political opponents do him no favors and question his ability to be commander-in-chief. They also denounce the breach of trust with allies faced with a fait accompli.
Moreover, Joe Biden will have to work for months afterwards to rebuild relations with the allies, especially in view of the Russian attack on Ukraine. But the episode of the withdrawal from Afghanistan has sown doubt. There is also doubt about the American ability to act on what is happening inside Afghan borders.
Joe Biden then promises that his country will be able to act from the outside, beyond the horizon. It will have taken a year to demonstrate this with the elimination a few days ago of the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri in the center of Kabul, still controlled by the Taliban.