
Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden: How four presidents created today's Afghanistan mess
CNN
President Joe Biden has said repeatedly over the past four months -- as recently as last week -- that he refuses to hand off the war in Afghanistan to a fifth US president.
Implicit in that statement is the belief the war shouldn't have been passed to him, nearly 20 years after it began. Each president since 2001 has confronted an evolving mission in Afghanistan, one that resulted in tens of thousands American and Afghan casualties, frustratingly futile attempts to improve the country's political leadership and a Taliban that stubbornly refused defeat.
Before the stealth bombers streaked through the Middle Eastern night, or the missiles rained down on suspected terrorists in Africa, or commandos snatched a South American president from his bedroom, or the icy slopes of Greenland braced for the threat of invasion, there was an idea at the White House.

More than two weeks after the stunning US raid on Caracas that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the political confrontation over the future of Venezuela is rapidly coalescing around two leaders, both women, who represent different visions for their country: the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who stands for continuity, and opposition leader María Corina Machado, who seeks the restoration of democracy.











