When President Joe Biden ordered U.S. forces home from Afghanistan, he and his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, assured us that the withdrawal would be a net positive for the United States. Not only would it end the country’s longest war, “it had to come to an end,” Sullivan told the Aspen Security Forum, but Washington, D.C., would also risk nothing as it could conduct counterterrorism from afar.

Announcing the end of the war on Aug. 31, 2021, Biden explained, “We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries. We just don’t need to fight a ground war to do it. We have what’s called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground.”