Biden's Chamberlain Moment

U.S. soldiers stand guard as Afghans wait at the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021 (Getty Images)

"You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.” Winston Churchill’s words to Neville Chamberlain following the Munich agreement echoed across Washington this week as the Biden administration reckons with the consequences of the most devastating blow to American prestige since the fall of Saigon, writes Walter Russell Mead in The Wall Street Journal. The fall of Kabul has been heard around the world and will have particularly deleterious consequences for America’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which hinges on the trust and confidence of our partners in New Delhi. Given recent events, India will naturally ask: What chance does Washington have against China?

The Stain of 2021

People gather around a Taliban flag as they wait for relatives released from jail in Afghanistan following an
"amnesty" by the Taliban, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Chaman on August 17, 2021 (Getty Images)

We’ve all heard that it’s past time to “end the endless wars”—but wars do not end when one party disengages and the enemy wages endless jihad, writes H.R. McMaster in a guest post for Bari Weiss’ Common Sense Substack. The world has been told that Afghan forces should have fought harder; that they rolled over; that they lacked the will to win. But tens of thousands of Afghans made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for a better future, and the psychological blow delivered through America’s sudden retreat is falling harder than even the physical blows that the Taliban delivered. It will be years before the stain of 2021 can be effaced.

After the Fall: Three Lessons from Afghanistan's State Failure

Taliban members patrol the streets of Jalalabad, Afghanistan on August 17, 2021. (Getty Images)

Afghanistan’s relapse into state failure suggests at least three stark lessons for America’s allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, writes Patrick Cronin in The Straits Times: Projecting power into another’s territory is subject to severe limitations; coping with emerging challenges requires making strategic trade-offs; and shifts in the security landscape—such as the fall of the U.S.-backed Afghan government—will escalate demands on the United States to reassure friends and deter potential foes.

Afghan Fiasco Failure Belongs to Biden, DC Elites

Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021 (Getty Images)

While the Taliban laid siege to Afghanistan, the commander-in-chief was hiding from the American people, wrote Rebeccah Heinrichs in Inside Sources. The events are hard to fathom. Is it possible that an American president, with decades of foreign policy experience, failed to consider the second- and third-order effects of such a consequential decision? It is not only possible—it is our very real, national nightmare.

Husain Haqqani on the Future of Afghanistan

Taliban fighters stand guard at an entrance gate outside the Interior Ministry in Kabul on August 17, 2021. (Getty Images)

There is no evidence to indicate that the Taliban will have any interest in the country’s development, Husain Haqqani told BBC World News as the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital on Monday. “These are certainly not the ones the people of Afghanistan can trust with their future…I think they will be a threat to the rest of the world as well.”

BEFORE YOU GO...

Following President Biden’s address on the Taliban’s reconquest of Afghanistan, Mike Pompeo weighed in on the president’s handling of the crisis on Fox Business: “The burden of Afghanistan has always fallen to the United States of America, and it’s our responsibility to make sure we get that right.”