'It's an impossible situation': Democrats link arms with Biden on Afghanistan -- and brace for the worst

Most congressional Democrats are backing President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan this year, though many harbor nagging concerns that the gains won over the last 20 years will be erased and the Taliban will retake control after American troops are no longer there.

Biden's announcement that US troops would leave by the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks wasn't met with a resounding endorsement from Democrats on Capitol Hill, and a handful came out in opposition. But like Biden's rationale for leaving, many Democrats in Congress say that departing after two decades is simply the best of a long list of bad options -- and now the key is for Biden's team to execute its strategy as US troops leave to keep terrorists from regaining a foothold in Afghanistan. Interviews with more than a dozen top national security congressional Democrats underscored that many of the previous hesitations that pushed lawmakers to support keeping a US military presence in Afghanistan over the last decade have dissipated as the war has dragged on and on.