Boris Johnson’s Plea to Joe Biden on Afghanistan: Don’t Quit
America's withdrawal strikes Brits and Europeans as cynical and raises questions about whether the West still has a “strategic will.”
Protestors march in solidarity with the people of Afganistan in central London.
Photographer: Tolga Akmen/AFP
Whenever G7 leaders gather, the optics usually say more than the anodyne communiques issued afterwards. Fortunately for Joe Biden, there will be no group photo from Tuesday’s virtual summit to talk about Afghanistan.
The withdrawal debacle has left the world’s preeminent power looking like the unreliable boyfriend (to borrow a charge once levied against the Bank of England). Frustration and confusion about America’s aims was a fairly common feature of the Trump era; it wasn’t what people expected from the president who said, “America is back.”