History will cast a shadow over Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan

What to know about U.S. forces in Afghanistan as withdrawal looms.

Afghanistan nagged at Joe Biden 10 years ago. He thought the Pentagon was muscling a new president, Barack Obama, into adding more troops for an unwinnable war. He believed the United States’ interests in Afghanistan should be focused on preventing another attack against the homeland.

This week, as president himself, Biden decisively reversed the choices made a decade ago and decided to withdraw all troops by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the ghastly al-Qaeda attacks that skewed U.S. foreign policy for two decades. It’s a gutsy move because the price of being wrong is enormous.

Military advisers, now as a decade ago, have been warning Biden of the dangers. Intelligence analysts predict that civil war may quickly erupt, and the Kabul government may collapse. They predict that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups could reestablish havens within two years. They fear that Islamist militants around the world, who have been on the defensive since the defeat of the Islamic State, will be emboldened by what the Taliban will claim as a victory.

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