The speed of the Taliban’s advance in Afghanistan is remarkable. Even those who thought that the Trump / Biden policy of withdrawal was a folly, did not expect that Kabul would be surrounded before the end of August.
Their only mistake was to believe our assurances about having an enduring commitment to the country
What makes the whole situation, with all the suffering that ordinary Afghans will endure and the damage being done to the US’s reputation for being a reliable ally, so exasperating is that after years of failure the US and Nato had found a relatively low cost way of maintaining a form of stability in the country. This is a self-inflicted blow to America’s reputation which will complicate the Biden’s administration other foreign policy goals, notably its desire to build coalitions in the Asia Pacific to check China’s rise.
Nato countries now have a moral responsibility to offer sanctuary to those Afghans who have helped operations there.
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