Analysis: Biden in turmoil as blast in Kabul raises leadership

On Aug 28, 2021

The atrocity rocked the final stages of the frantic US evacuation of as many as 1,000 Americans who may still be in the country, as well as thousands of Afghans who helped US forces and officials and fear Taliban executions if they are left behind.

It also shone a harsh light on President Joe Biden’s decision-making and the chaotic nature of the US withdrawal that left American troops and civilians so vulnerable, in the confusing, chaotic days after the Taliban seized Kabul.

The most alarming realization in the aftermath of the carnage was that there may be more to come before the deadline for the US to leave for good on Tuesday. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were warned by their national security team on Friday “another terror attack in Kabul is likely,” according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

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Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who heads US Central Command, warned on Thursday that new threats from ISIS-K, possibly involving rockets or vehicle borne suicide bombs could be imminent. That means that the coming days will be among the most tense and dangerous of the entire war for US troops. And the awful possibility remains that the country’s last victim of the first post-9/11 war is yet to die.

At a time of national tragedy, nations turn to their leaders. Biden, who spent much of the day in the White House Situation Room, emerged in the late afternoon on Thursday for a televised speech. Torn between grief and resolve, he vowed vengeance. “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” the President told the terrorists in remarks that mostly seemed aimed at projecting strength to Americans at home.

“We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose, and the moment of our choosing,” the President said. Biden’s withdrawal marks the symbolic reversal of the US arrival in Afghanistan launched after 9/11 and the strategy of putting troops on the ground in foreign states to fight terrorism.

But ironically, his pledge of revenge mirrored one made by ex-President George W. Bush days after the world’s worst terrorist attacks. “This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing,” Bush said at a prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. The similarity reflected the truth that American presidents — for all their nation’s power now somewhat drained by an exhausting two decades-long war — can be singularly challenged by terrorism, an asymmetric threat that cannot defeat the United States but can wound it and threaten to drag it into perpetual conflict.

Some things in Biden’s speech don’t add up

Biden’s address on Thursday was punctuated by several contradictions.

First, his vow to “complete the mission” of extracting from the country all remaining Americans and Afghans who helped US forces appears impossible, given that he is not planning to extend the deadline for withdrawal past Tuesday. His talk of carrying on…