With Afghan pullout, Biden aims to reset America's global agenda

[DonViejo]

April 13, 2021 at 4:54 pm Updated April 13, 2021 at 5:19 pm

By Anne Gearan
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has watched a parade of presidents set sweeping goals for the United States overseas, only to become entangled in long-running, slow-bleeding problems. Now that he has the job himself, Biden is determined to avoid the same fate.

His pledge to end the two-decade U.S. war in Afghanistan is the best example so far.

Biden sees the war against the Taliban as a drag on the need to deal with bigger threats like China, climate change, the coronavirus pandemic — and even a terrorism menace that has mutated significantly in the two decades since the attacks that launched the Afghan war to begin with. He is also focused on threats from Russia and the decline of U.S. influence abroad.

Biden will lay out plans Wednesday to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida attacks on the United States that were planned from Afghan soil. The announcement makes good on Biden’s campaign promise to close down the nation’s longest war and is in keeping with his view that wars become self-perpetuating if the generals call the shots.

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https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/with-afghan-pullout-biden-aims-to-reset-americas-global-agenda/