What President Biden cited to justify the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, its circumstances and the chaos at Kabul airport, will earn him a lot of criticism from his opponents.
After all, one can rightly doubt whether he was really only faced with the alternative of holding on in principle to the withdrawal that his predecessor in office had promised the Taliban, or of sending tens of thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan and re-escalating the conflict.
An extension of the status quo would also have been conceivable, linked to the behavior of the Taliban.
The way it went, the land literally fell into their laps.
Regardless of the fact that Biden does not think about admitting mistakes, he draws far-reaching consequences from America's wars after "9/11". One lesson reads:
Regime change
and
nation building
are no longer pursued by military means. Another: future military operations must have clear, achievable goals and serve national security.
This determination will inevitably not completely dispel doubts about America's credibility, but it should reassure partners in Asia and Europe. Because in a conflict there, fundamental American interests would be at stake. Apart from preventing a terrorist attack against America, that was not the case in Afghanistan. Military interventions are not ruled out in the future either. Improvement of the world as a reason is not enough.