Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden.. How 4 American presidents contributed to the tragedy of Afghanistan

WASHINGTON

- President Joe Biden has repeatedly said over the past four months that he refuses to bequeath the war in Afghanistan to a fifth president.

Biden believes she shouldn't have moved on, nearly 20 years after it started.

Over the past 20 years, every US president, starting with Republican George Bush, Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Donald Trump, and ending with Democrat Biden, has contributed to the Afghanistan war that killed tens of thousands of Afghans and Americans, in addition to spending more than two trillion dollars on failed attempts. To improve the political, economic and security conditions, the American adventure ended with the return of the Taliban movement to once again control Afghanistan.

The way each American president dealt with the Afghan issue will remain a topic discussed by historians, and Al Jazeera Net here briefly presents each president's vision of the longest war in American history.

Bush Jr.. a global war on terror

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, planned by al-Qaeda from inside Afghanistan, President George W. Bush pledged to eradicate global terrorism, and called on the Taliban to hand over the leaders of al-Qaeda hiding in Afghanistan, led by Osama bin Laden, and the movement rejected.

Congress authorized a large majority of Republicans and Democrats to prosecute those responsible for the September 11 attacks, and Bush asserted in a joint session of Congress after the attacks that the coming conflict would be an "unparalleled long campaign," but he could not have predicted how long the war that began with air strikes on 7 October 2001.

The American forces overthrew the Taliban government, and pursued bin Laden, who was hiding in the mountains of Tora Bora, southeast of the capital, Kabul, until bin Laden infiltrated across the border into Pakistan.

By May 2003, the Pentagon said that the major fighting in Afghanistan was over, and Washington and its allies began moving toward rebuilding the country and establishing a Western-style democratic political system.

As Washington's focus shifted to the Iraq war in March 2003, military resources were depleted and the Pentagon's eyes turned away from Afghanistan.

The Taliban began retaking some rural areas in the south.

When Bush left office in 2009, there were more than 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

Obama failed to fulfill his pledge to withdraw from Afghanistan (Reuters)

Obama .. A pledge to end the war was not fulfilled

Obama inherited the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from Bush, but he was determined to withdraw from both.

The president demanded from his senior generals a formula to get out of Afghanistan, and the decision to increase the number of forces was to deal a severe blow to the Taliban, after which an exit could be negotiated out of force.

After some hesitation, Obama ordered the deployment of tens of thousands of other soldiers to this country.

At the same time, he committed to a timetable that would begin to withdraw troops by 2011.

Obama insisted on benchmarks to measure progress in the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

In a speech announcing the troop surge, he said it would "help create the conditions that allow the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans."

And the number of US forces there in mid-2010 reached more than 100,000 soldiers, and special forces were able to track down and kill bin Laden inside his hideout in Pakistan.

Shortly thereafter, Obama announced that he would begin withdrawing his forces with the goal of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghans by 2014.

Then Obama announced the end of major combat operations on December 31, 2014, with the combat missions shifting to training and assisting the Afghan security forces, and attempts to negotiate with the Taliban failed, and with the end of his second term approaching, Obama realized that the fragile security situation would not allow withdrawal. The perfect one he had hoped for.

He left his post at a time when the number of American forces reached nearly 10,000.

Trump..America first..a deal with the Taliban

Trump has pledged to bring his troops home, but keeping his promise has been difficult as the Taliban continues to rise, and an Islamic State branch has emerged there.

From the first day in office, Trump's advisers were divided between a group of military personnel who called for the continuation of the presence in Afghanistan, and a group of supporters of the principle of "America First" who opposed the continued presence in this country.

Ultimately, Trump admitted - in an August 2017 speech - that although his intention was to withdraw all forces, circumstances made that impossible.

A year later, the president assigned Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to lead negotiations with the Taliban aimed at ending the war.

The talks mostly excluded the Afghan government and President Ashraf Ghani.

After several rounds of long negotiations, an agreement was reached on February 29, 2020, setting the path for a full US withdrawal by May 2021, in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban to sever ties with terrorist groups, and not to allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists.

Biden reiterated that he had no choice but to: push more troops in an endless war or complete the withdrawal, so he chose the latter (European).

Biden .. Withdrawal, whatever the repercussions

Biden believed in recent years, after many visits to Afghanistan as a senator and vice president for 8 years, that his country had no interest in a military presence in Afghanistan after achieving its terrorism-related goals, and that nothing could be done to build this country into a stable democracy.

During the early days of his rule, Biden received assessments from his national security team that withdrawing all forces could lead to the eventual collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's seizure of power.

At the same time, Biden inherited an agreement Trump reached with the Taliban.

Finally, the president announced that his remaining 2,500 troops would be home by August 31.

The Pentagon worked to withdraw the forces quickly, and on July 2, Bagram Airport (a symbol of US military strength) was handed over to the government forces, at the same time the Taliban continued to gain more states and regions at the expense of the government army.

On August 15, the Taliban returned to power in Kabul after the president fled the country, a breakdown that Biden said frankly had happened much more quickly than he had expected.

The movement rejected any extension of the deadline for the withdrawal of US forces, which and its allies began a quick mission to evacuate its citizens, and Afghan collaborators who helped during the war effort and fear reprisals by the militants.

And following the chaos of the evacuation process, with thousands of Afghans racing to Kabul Airport, wanting to escape, 13 Americans fell in a suicide bombing like the latest chapter in the killing of Americans in Afghanistan, at a time when Biden reiterated that he had only two options: complete the withdrawal or push more troops into a war. Endless, the president chose the first alternative.