This is the 20th anniversary and there's a festering hostage crisis involving, at best, hundreds, at worst, thousands. I don't know what necessarily will happen but 'status quo ante' is not it.
The news cycle is very likely to get seized by something else, before which the administration will try to take even more victory laps about how 'successful' the withdrawal was. They are obsessed with the narrative that withdrawing for withdrawal's sake for the 20th anniversary is required to generate good press for Joe. They are a bunch of arrogant asshats, and that invites people to do dramatic things to get their attention. ISIS played this game with the Iraqi Christian mass executions and the Obama administration. That administration was far more competent at managing the narrative and including at least a little sugar to go with what they're asking for.
Biden's team seems to think 'Lecture the little people and scream at them if they balk' is a productive messaging approach. There is no sugar. No dress up, just thuggish arrogance. I would expect the Taliban and their buddies to revel in this and the absurd amount of leverage Biden just dumped in their laps. Democrats could care less about the 20th anniversary of 9/11 beyond the possibility of a few good headlines for 'ending the war', but the Taliban, Al Qaeda, et. al. really care about that date. The war hasn't ended for them and they probably want to remind us at large about that fact.
If it were a year ago? Sure.
This is the 20th anniversary and there's a festering hostage crisis involving, at best, hundreds, at worst, thousands. I don't know what necessarily will happen but 'status quo ante' is not it.
The news cycle is very likely to get seized by something else, before which the administration will try to take even more victory laps about how 'successful' the withdrawal was. They are obsessed with the narrative that withdrawing for withdrawal's sake for the 20th anniversary is required to generate good press for Joe. They are a bunch of arrogant asshats, and that invites people to do dramatic things to get their attention. ISIS played this game with the Iraqi Christian mass executions and the Obama administration. That administration was far more competent at managing the narrative and including at least a little sugar to go with what they're asking for.
Biden's team seems to think 'Lecture the little people and scream at them if they balk' is a productive messaging approach. There is no sugar. No dress up, just thuggish arrogance. I would expect the Taliban and their buddies to revel in this and the absurd amount of leverage Biden just dumped in their laps. Democrats could care less about the 20th anniversary of 9/11 beyond the possibility of a few good headlines for 'ending the war', but the Taliban, Al Qaeda, et. al. really care about that date. The war hasn't ended for them and they probably want to remind us at large about that fact.
I think the no sugar thing is what they thought Trump was like.