‘We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago,” Joe Biden declared on August 31, 2021, following the bloody crescendo of his shambolic retreat from Central Asia. The Taliban had evolved from American adversary into a partner in peace, Biden averred, and they could be trusted to see to U.S. interests in the region. Besides, “the terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan,” Biden added. To the extent that the post-9/11 Global War on Terror continued at all, it would shift its focus to more active theaters of conflict elsewhere.
Two years later, the Biden administration remains committed to painting a rosy picture of the security threats metastasizing inside the Taliban’s Afghanistan. A new U.S. intelligence assessment released last week maintains that the Taliban are keeping their promises. It is “unlikely” that the theocratic Afghan government will allow al-Qaeda to reconstitute itself, the report claimed, and Kabul continues to degrade the Islamic State of Khorasan’s (ISIS-K) capacity to conduct attacks domestically or abroad. If the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan’s safe harbors one day becomes more acute, the Biden White House insists that it retains robust “over the horizon” counterterror capabilities. Rest easy.
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