US president Joe Biden hasn't jetted his first 100 days in office but has already made some important foreign policy decisions. His decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan could be the until now most important one, even might be historic or also fatefully fatal for the US.
| US soldiers at Lashkar Gah, Hermand province in Afghanistan. Photo: AFP/VNA |
He set this year's September 11th as the deadline for the completion of the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan, only a few months later than time point his predecessor fixed in the US - Afghan Taliban peace deal.
With this decision, president Biden put an end to the war US president George W. Bush 20 years ago sparked in Afghanistan in the afterwards of the terror attacks on the US on 2001 September 11th. This war, survived three US presidents in 20 years, has been the longest and most expensive war the US has ever fought in its history.
So long, so expensive and without any perspective of achieving the final victory in the time where Americans have become more and more war-weary, this war profoundly polarized and divided the American society and weakened the US politically, financially and morally. It put the US in a growing dilemma the longer it lasts the more difficult for the US to be able to finish it without losing face and credibility in the world.
Therefore, Joe Biden's decision to finally end this war was very courageously for him but right and necessary, late but still not too late for the US. In this aspect, Joe Biden's recent move to enable America to get rid of this otherwise never-ending adventure in Afghanistan has been historic for America and very good for his present presidency.
But it is very risky for America to lose both its done investments and already achieved results in Afghanistan during the last two decades because of lacking any promising exit strategy that surely guaranties durable peace, security, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan in the post-war times, first of all those strategies that embark the inevitable process of inner-Afghan peace, national reconciliation and unification.
Joe Biden didn't bind the pull-out of US troops from Afghanistan with any pre-condition to the Afghan Taliban thus creating possibilities and paving ways for Taliban to take power again in Afghanistan in the near future. If the Afghan Taliban couldn't transform itself to a political party or movement in Afghanistan, the US would lose everything in this country right like the saying of losing hook, line and sinker.
There will be a new power vacuum in Afghanistan and a geostrategic vacuum in this region. It would be a very easy play for others like China, Russia or even Pakistan to fill it as biggest profiteers without any contribution. America's long-term and strategic security and interests would negatively be impacted. Therefore, Joe Biden's decision to move America out of its Afghanistan war was fateful for America.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by Ambassador Tran Duc Mau are of his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Hanoitimes.
