Biden shifts focus with Afghanistan departure
President Joe Biden has watched a parade of presidents set sweeping goals for the United States overseas, only to become entangled in long-running, slow-bleeding problems. Now that he has the job himself, Biden is determined to avoid the same fate.
His pledge to end the twodecade US war in Afghanistan is the best example so far. Biden sees the war against the Taliban as a drag on the need to deal with bigger threats like China, climate change, the coronavirus pandemic – and even a terrorism menace that has mutated significantly in the two decades since the attacks that launched the Afghan war to begin with. He is also focused on threats from Russia and the decline of US influence abroad.
Biden will lay out plans today to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States that were planned from Afghan soil.
‘‘The president has been consistent in his view that there’s not a military solution to Afghanistan, that we have been there for far too long,’’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said yesterday, adding that ‘‘he also believes we need to focus our resources on fighting the threats we face today, 20 years – almost 20 years – after the war began.’’
Biden in coming days and weeks is starkly signalling his belief that the United States needs to shift its focus to other parts of the globe, especially Asia.
The announcement comes two days before Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the first foreign leader to visit the Biden White House, for a session expected to focus heavily on threats from China.
It also comes as US climate envoy John Kerry is expected to soon become the first top Biden administration official to visit China, and a day after Biden had invited Russian President Vladimir Putin for a future summit. Biden has also invited both Putin and Chinese President Xi
Jinping to attend a US-sponsored climate summit later this month.
Those efforts are challenge enough without the weight of legacy conflicts that have bogged down presidents for decades, Biden foreign policy advisers said.
Three presidents tried and failed to dig out of the war in Afghanistan, and Biden was vice president when one of them, Barack Obama, ended up significantly expanding it instead.
Now Biden has the chance to act on his long-held views, and he is taking it less than three months into his administration.
‘‘The president deeply believes that in contending with the threats and challenges of 2021 – as opposed to those of 2001 – we need to be focusing our energy, our resources, our personnel, the time of our foreign policy and national security leadership on those threats and challenges that are most acute for the United States,’’ a senior Biden administration official said.
‘‘Doing that requires us to close the book on a 20-year conflict in Afghanistan and move forward with clear eyes and an effective strategy to protect and defend America’s national security interests.’’
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The same theory applies to Biden’s effort to downgrade the Middle East as a central priority, with the exception of a focus on Iran’s nuclear programme.
He has distanced himself from both the Israeli and Saudi leaders and made no moves to launch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians – a contrast with many of his predecessors who took office determined to be the president who brings peace to the Middle East.
Most of Biden’s priorities are hard pivots away from the policies and whims of former president Donald Trump, from bolstering the US connection to the European Union and Nato to sharply criticising Putin. Restarting talks with Iran last week is another example.
But in the case of Afghanistan, Biden is pursuing a goal he actually shares with Trump: ending the US military presence in Afghanistan by a certain date.
The drawdown will begin this month, US officials said yesterday.
The September 11 date is firm and leaves no room for a small counterterrorism force once envisioned as a hedge against a resurgence of al-Qaeda or similar threats, the senior Biden administration official said.
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