One year later, I-ARC Executive Director Camille Mackler weighs in on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

For many Americans, the one-year anniversary of the disastrous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is a sober milestone marking one of the country’s biggest foreign-policy mistakes in modern history. But for President Joe Biden, the anniversary also marks the moment his presidency started to spiral out of control — a spiral from which he still hasn’t completely recovered.

In the months before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban late last summer, Biden was enjoying a honeymoon period since taking office. His average approval rating was about 53 percent. Biden had promised in May to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — several months after President Donald Trump’s agreement to draw down all U.S. forces in May. The withdrawal was meant to close a controversial chapter in American history and, if all went mostly according to plan, give Biden a political boost for being the president who ended the “forever war.”

All did not go according to plan. Instead, Kabul fell on August 15, just weeks before Biden’s withdrawal deadline, and thousands of Afghans, many of whom worked alongside American troops, descended on Kabul Airport in a desperate attempt to escape the country. Americans were stunned by images of Afghans clinging to a U.S. military plane as it took off, with several men falling to their death on the tarmac. Shortly afterward, a suicide bombing outside the airport killed 13 American troops and 170 others.

Continue reading the Politico story, including thoughts from our Executive Director Camille Mackler, HERE.