To pursue his global agenda, can Biden put Afghanistan behind him?
As President Joe Biden sought this week to defend his chaotic and much-criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, he underscored how America must turn away from “forever wars” and yesterday’s foreign policy if it is to meet the “new challenges in the competition for the 21st century.”
Out are nation building of the massive variety the United States pursued in Afghanistan for two decades, large-scale boots-on-the-ground missions to tackle a continuing but evolved terrorism threat, and neglecting needs at home to improve lives abroad, Mr. Biden said in an address Tuesday.
In, on the other hand, are confronting a rising China and a revanchist Russia “on multiple fronts,” addressing complex cyberattacks and nuclear proliferation, and acting to “shore up America’s competitiveness” to meet those new challenges.
To which the president could have added “strengthening democracy to challenge rising authoritarianism and refurbishing America’s moral leadership”
Not the what, but the howReminders of “America First”Lessons of post-Vietnam eraShift in spending
