Biden's risky decision to end America's longest war gives him a chance to refocus US foreign policy
CNN
President Joe Biden's decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan by September marks a pivotal moment after almost 20 years of war in the country and thousands of lives lost -- it also signals a coming shift in US focus and resources overseas.
Biden administration officials said Tuesday that the President has ordered the remaining 2,500 or so troops in the country to begin a drawdown before May 1 and that all should be gone by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the war that followed. A senior administration official said the President believes the US has met the objectives it set at the outset of the war in 2001 and that in order to fully attend to "the threats and challenges of 2021, as opposed to those of 2001," the administration needs to focus on the most acute challenges it faces now. That includes competition with China, the coronavirus outbreak and the more widely distributed terrorist threat across multiple countries and in new domains such as cyber.More Related News