PENTAGON officials at the recent Congress hearings on the US pullout from Afghanistan and its consequences claimed to have warned President Biden that a complete withdrawal from the Central Asian country would bring about the demoralization and meltdown of the security forces and collapse of the government. It was their view that some US forces should be left behind. Biden in a press interview denied being so advised by anyone at any time. Perhaps fearful that her boss might be accused of being too lazy to read the briefings on his table as his predecessor Trump was, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki clarified that Biden might have received said advice but that he had his own views on the matter.

Biden agreed with his predecessor that it was time to end the US 'forever war' in Afghanistan. During the election campaign, Biden publicly mentioned the Trump foreign policies that he would reverse once elected. The agreement that Trump negotiated with the Taliban was not among them. Amid the chaotic evacuation of American civilians and Afghans-at-risk triggered by the blitzkrieg takeover by the Taliban, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that they were only following through on the Trump administration's agreement with the Taliban. The argument was obviously meant to blunt criticism coming from Trump minions in the Republican Party of the way the administration was handling the evacuation. Whether there was that agreement or not, Biden, it seems to us, was really bent on pulling out of Afghanistan.