Biden Facing Fierce Criticism Over Terror Attract

Biden Facing Fierce Criticism Over Terror AttractShow more

America's longest war is ending as it began, with the nation mourning the dead of a terrorist attack and an outraged President vowing to hunt down the culprits in Afghanistan.

The bloody coda to a tortured 20 years -- the loss of 13 US troops and at least 90 Afghans in blasts outside Kabul's airport on Thursday -- exemplified the human tragedy and ultimate futility of a conflict that failed in its core purpose: purging Afghan soil of terrorism. In a cruel irony, the latest Americans to die perished in an attack conceived in the very same land as the al Qaeda assault on September 11, 2001, that triggered the war they were trying to leave.
The atrocity -- believed to have been carried out by the Islamic State affiliate known as ISIS-K -- rocked the final stages of the frantic US evacuation of as many as 1,000 Americans who may still be in the country, as well as thousands of Afghans who helped US forces and officials and fear Taliban executions if they are left behind. Approximately 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan in the latest 24-hour period, according to the White House.
It also shone a harsh light on President Joe Biden's decision-making and the chaotic nature of the US withdrawal that left American troops and civilians so vulnerable, in the confusing, chaotic days after the Taliban seized Kabul.
The most alarming realization in the aftermath of the carnage was that there may be more to come before the deadline for the US to leave for good on Tuesday.