‘Obviously’ Afghanistan undercuts Biden’s ‘America is back’ message abroad

“America is back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values,” he proudly proclaimed during a press conference at the G-7 Summit. “I think we’ve made some progress in reestablishing American credibility among our closest friends.”

Biden’s claims were echoed by a number of G-7 leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Multiple Biden administration officials expressed frustration to the Washington Examiner that the reestablishment of the Taliban and rapid collapse of the Afghan government could roll back diplomatic progress the president had made earlier in his term.

One administration official added that U.S. efforts to supply the international community with “hundreds of millions” of coronavirus vaccines, a key part of Biden’s plan to reassert America as the foremost global leader and counter Chinese influence, would be overshadowed by the Afghanistan fallout. Case in point, the White House announced additional international shipments of doses on Tuesday, yet not a single reporter asked a question on the subject at Tuesday’s nearly two-hour briefing with White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Two other administration officials defended Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and suggested that failings of the Afghan government and security forces were more responsible for a Taliban takeover than actions taken by America.

“[Deposed Afghan President Ashraf] Ghani came to Washington and made promises they would be able to hold off the Taliban,” one official said. “In hindsight, maybe we shouldn’t have believed him, but the president is getting blamed for something that isn’t really his fault.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued similar comments on Tuesday, claiming that the situation in Afghanistan was “tragic” but that the international community had been “clear-eyed” when assessing the possible results of a full military withdrawal from the country.

“What we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated,” he said at a virtual press conference. “Parts of the Afghan security forces fought bravely, but they were unable to secure the country because ultimately the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted. This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today.”

The White House did not respond to inquiries on the subject by press time but did provide press with readouts of two calls Biden held with Merkel and Johnson, two of America’s closest allies, in recent days after Sullivan told reporters that the president had not spoken to any heads of state about the situation.

During those calls, the leaders “commended the bravery and professionalism of their military and civilian personnel, who are working shoulder to shoulder in Kabul on the evacuation of their citizens and Afghan nationals who assisted in the war effort,” and they “discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward, including ways the global community can provide further humanitarian assistance and support for refugees and other vulnerable Afghans,” according to the White House.

All three also “agreed to hold a virtual G-7 leaders’ meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach.”

Contrary to the aforementioned comments from Biden administration officials, Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA operator and foreign policy expert who frequently contributes to Fox News, cautioned against reading too far into the Afghanistan problem, at least in terms of Biden’s general foreign policy approach and goals.

Hoffman opposed Biden’s plan for a full Afghanistan withdrawal and claimed that “there’s an impact, obviously, on our international standing,” but he suggested that it’s too early to tell how much of a hit America’s reputation has taken with its allies.

“It’s a big question you’re asking,” he said during an interview with the Washington Examiner. “A definitive answer is hard to make.”

Hoffman claimed that the withdrawal “made Afghanistan a much more dangerous place for the region and for our closest allies and, obviously, for ourselves here in the homeland,” but he added that “the big question for me, coming from CIA, is still the same.”

“It’s can you detect threats. That was always hard to do, even when we owned the battle space in Afghanistan, but it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult now,” he explained.

Hoffman also suggested that “you’ve got to be careful” in interpreting the framing of the Afghan collapse from U.S. adversaries — China, in particular.

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“It’s way too early to start making those sort of definitive judgments. I think people need to just take a deep breath here and calm down, call off this administration for a chaotic and disastrous withdrawal that never should have happened in the first place,” he said. “But let’s just take a deep breath before we start making pronouncements about what it means for our global or national security, and I’m the first person to be critical of these people for this mess that they got into.”