Don’t Let the Taliban Dictate the U.S. Evacuation
The Biden administration should say, quietly but firmly, that U.S. troops will leave only once the mission is complete — and that there’ll be consequences for getting in their way.
Waiting in Kabul.
Photographer: Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force/Getty Images
The Taliban have declared that U.S. troops must wrap up the huge and frantic evacuation operation at the Kabul airport and leave Afghanistan by Aug. 31, calling the date a “red line.” President Joe Biden seems ready to go along with that view. He shouldn’t.
The facts on the ground demand a course correction, and the Aug. 31 deadline isn’t binding. The deal that former President Donald Trump signed with the Taliban called for a May 1 withdrawal, which Biden extended to Sept. 11. At his own discretion, he moved the date up in early July, as the U.S. military drawdown neared completion.