United States of America Scoping: 'Break free from the shackles of American hegemony'

'Break free from the shackles of American hegemony'

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September 1, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'Break free from the shackles of American hegemony'

Like the pandemic, America's final withdrawal from Afghanistan held an unflattering mirror to its often ugly politics. It also revealed characteristics of Joe Biden's leadership that the President had previously shielded from the public.

While saying the buck stopped with him, the President frequently shifted it elsewhere. His attack on the vanishing Afghan army ignored years of sacrifices of thousands of soldiers and his own withdrawal of military support. Biden ran for office on competence, empathy and as a foreign policy expert who would always level with voters. That image is now badly tarnished. The deaths of several children in an Afghan family caught in a US airstrike aimed at an ISIS-K vehicle bomb meanwhile betrayed the risks of Biden's new "over the horizon" terror war.

A few Republicans advanced necessary, tempered criticism of the events in Kabul. But the crisis also exposed the hypocrisy and craven loyalty to ex-President Donald Trump that is their party's major operating principle.

While savaging Biden, few Republicans acknowledged that Trump's capitulation to the Taliban in a withdrawal deal set the stage for the disaster. Only hours after the deaths of 13 US service members and more than 170 Afghans in a suicide bomb attack, Republicans demanded Biden's resignation and impeachment. These were the same lawmakers who appeased and are still enabling Trump's assault on American democracy, and who claimed that impeaching him for gross abuses of power was pure politics. There are just not many serious people left in the GOP these days.

Partisan media on the right churned out its usual torrent of falsehoods. But liberal journalists, in their zeal to defend Biden, also let their partisanship blind them to the truth of the failures of the evacuation.

The crisis did also highlight brighter sides of America. Once roused, the military in coordination with allies conducted a stunning airlift that rescued more than 122,000 people. The troops who died did so while offering foreign strangers a chance at a new life.

Covid-19 has pried open the ideological divides cleaving US society, and the Afghan drama showed how impossible it now is to have a reasonable argument about a key national security issue in Washington. Biden's inauguration plea for national unity seems more elusive than ever.

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'The threat from terrorism continues but it's changed'

In a defiant speech Tuesday defending the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden reiterated his administration's commitment to continue to go after terrorism around the globe, saying the US will "go after terror where it is today, not where it was two decades ago."

"To ISIS-K: We are not done with you yet," Biden said, vowing retribution for last week's deadly airport bombing, for which ISIS-K claimed responsibility. "The threat from terrorism continues, but it's changed. Our strategy needs to change too," he added.

'Break free from the shackles of American hegemony'

After the Taliban declared victory Tuesday morning, congratulations came in from al Qaeda itself -- the very terror group that the US vowed to root out when it first invaded Afghanistan.

The US and NATO's "Afghan debacle marks the beginning of the end of the dark era of Western hegemony and military occupation of Islamic lands," it said in an English-language statement released by the group's media wing, which also called on "the masses in Europe and East Asia to break free from the shackles of American hegemony."

The Taliban has pledged to prevent terror groups from using Afghan soil to launch attacks abroad -- but many fear the country will become a haven for jihadists, especially given the Taliban's failure to prevent the ISIS-K attack that killed over 180 people last week.

'Do us a favor'

Volodymyr Zelensky is finally getting that White House visit.

The pomp and glory of an Oval Office sit-down first danced in the eyes of Ukraine's President when Donald Trump phoned to congratulate him on his election win in 2019, and invited him to visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But the trip never happened.

Instead, Ukrainian officials were repeatedly led to believe the invitation was contingent on Zelensky announcing a probe into alleged corruption by then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Ukraine. In a notorious telephone call, Trump laid out the bargain, asking Zelensky over the phone to "do us a favor."

No one ever accused Trump of being subtle. "Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we'll work that out," the then-President said at the end of the arm-twisting session. Trump has insisted the call was "perfect" -- but using presidential power to coerce a foreign nation into interfering in US politics is a gross abuse of power. Trump's first impeachment in the House of Representatives duly followed.

The promised Oval Office visit never materialized, though Trump and Zelensky did meet at the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2019.

On Wednesday, however, Zelensky will sit down with the man Trump tried to force him to investigate, now-President Biden. The visit is proof of how quickly political tides can turn; foreign leaders would be well advised to avoid being dragged into partisan politics.

Biden is expected to make a strong statement of support for Ukraine's territorial integrity in its battle with Vladimir Putin's Russia, which is of huge symbolic importance in Kiev. But this will also be a test of Biden's foreign policy amid concern in Europe about US global leadership after his botched pullout from Afghanistan.

One thing Biden probably won't say? "Do us a favor."

Thanks for reading.
On Wednesday, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivers his third state of the union address. EU defense ministers meet imformally. The UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will face questions by lawmakers about withdrawal from Afghanistan.