Context is ALWAYS important but, especially so when it comes to foreign policy and related issues. Most analysts don't get this, for any number of reasons.

This Atlantic author is dead wrong on Biden's stance on Iraq. I've been over and over and over on that in this blog too many times already.

I don't have any more time for this ... article.

Here is another interesting read that has some relevance to what is happening now. It's a declassified transcript of a meeting between president Ford and others, including Biden, then a senator and member of the Foreign Relations committee ...

The author of the Atlantic piece is not a student of history, obviously.

https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0314/1553026.pdf

I got as far as the Vietamese issue. Which the author you cite got completely wrong. Not surprising since the assertions made about Biden were based on a book by Donald Rumsfeld. Say no more.

I recalled the following op-ed by Biden on the issue during the 2020 presidential campaign ...

https://vietbao.com/a305433/pho-tong-thong-joe-biden-viet-cho-nguoi-my-goc-viet

I really like this blogger who calls himself Wartard ("Because Humans are Retarded by War") here's a highly useful post that I recommend as a primer on The idea of ISIS: The history and future of the Islamic State.

Don Harris, you'll really like this guy!

I dunno, Elizabeth. I'd like you to read Biden’s Long Trail of Betrayals --
Why is the president so consistently wrong on major foreign-policy matters? and comment. This Atlantic article is pretty hard on Joe, so I'd like your take on it, please.

I couldn't agree more.

I would just add that it took a president who is extremely competent and knowledgeable and, as such, comfortable in his own skin, to get the US out of Afghanistan. Obama was not equipped to do it. He could not override the generals. Biden could and did.

Now, I will be more interested than words can say to watch the diplomatic mission as it unfolds. The US wants to extract all of its citizens and Afghan allies and the Taliban leadership and the government they hope to preside over is wholly dependent on international aid and assistance. This could work out very well for both the US and the Taliban. The only question is what will the Taliban do ...

the graveyard of empires moniker really is apt. no president would have come out of this looking good, but even so there have been way more unforced errors than there should have been. it's pretty clear to me that the president knows this and was taken by surprise initially. the measure of his presidency isn't going to be what just happened, but how he recovers from it and soldiers on.

@don,
i recommend the pie vaccine. it's the cure for all that ails our nation. it's tasty, and it will work!

I think there were two major errors since OBL was killed. Number one, diplomacy never outweighed the military aspect of this mission and, number two, Obama was not nearly strong enough to stand up to the generals.

I think the war is over and I think the US can reasonably say that its mission was a success - in the sense that a very heavy price was paid by those who planned the 9/11 attacks and those who gave safe harbour for the terrorists.

The US was never going to remake Afghanistan in its own eyes ... I knew THAT about 18 or 19 years ago when a reporter showed a bunch of Afghan elders the devastating pictures of the rubble in the aftermath of 9/11 and asked them if they knew where this was ... their near mmediate consesus? The pictures were of ... Kabul!

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were DINO Presidents, content to keep the status quo while letting us fight over social issues.

Elizabeth, you know that I'm more of a fan of Joe Biden now that I've seen some positive results. But Joe has to get this done -- whatever it takes. Otherwise he's just another tool of the rich bastards.

And I shall spend the rest of my life working for the Democratic Socialists of America.