Washington, D.C.
Symbolic date: President Joe Biden said this week that he would withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11—a date past the May 1 deadline the Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban, but still a concrete timetable to end America’s lengthiest war. “We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago,” Biden said. “That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.” The Washington Post quoted an administration official as saying the U.S. withdrawal “is not conditions-based.” There are about 3,500 U.S. troops in the country and another 7,000 in the coalition forces. The Taliban, which had agreed to refrain from attacks on U.S. troops until May 1, did not say whether the cease-fire would apply to the new Sept. 11 deadline. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the move “reckless” and a “retreat in the face of an enemy that has not yet been vanquished.”