In an excerpt of "The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future" adapted for The Atlantic, Foer depicts Biden as being unfailingly stubborn and arrogant to the end of the disastrous US withdrawal.
Biden believed that unlike his predecessors, he could rise above pressures from the military and foreign policy establishments to finally withdraw the United States from an unwinnable mission in Afghanistan, the book said.
As of August 1, a month before completing the withdrawal, the Biden administration reportedly still believed that an orderly transition of power to a governing coalition between the Taliban* and the government of President Ashraf Ghani was possible.
It was also noted there were even discussions of Secretary of State Antony Blinken going to Qatar to preside over a signing of an accord. In addition, the State Department believed it would be able to keep the US embassy in Kabul open after the withdrawal.
The administration further assessed the Afghan military would be able to hold off the Taliban* for months as no one thought there would be a need to resort to emergency scenarios.
18 October 2022, 02:37 GMT
The White House, backed by the CIA, did not adjust its posture despite US Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie warning a week earlier that Kabul could be surrounded by the Taliban* within a month, the book said.
As of August 12, the US intelligence community still did not think the Taliban* would try to storm Kabul until after the planned US withdrawal on August 31, the book alleges.
Foer then describes how the Biden administration, lacking will and resources, unwittingly fell into relying on the Taliban* to act in good faith and keep order across Kabul while the US evacuation proceeded.
By mid-month, hundreds of thousands of desperate Afghans from the countryside were flooding into Kabul to escape retribution from the Taliban* and trying to find a way out with the withdrawing Americans, the book said.
The Biden administration believed it could avoid a repeat of the similarly disastrous US withdrawal from Saigon in 1975, but the situation at the Kabul airport quickly worsened, complete with chaotic scenes of Afghans’ grisly deaths as they attempted to board airplanes and flee, the book said.
The situation was further complicated when 13 US service members and dozens of Afghans were killed in terrorist bombing explosions outside of Kabul airport. In the ensuing chaos, the US government managed to evacuate in a rather manic and ad-hoc manner about 124,000 people, the book said.
Despite the public outcry at the numerous casualties and destruction amid the unorganized withdrawal, Biden reportedly nevertheless believed his decision to pull the United States out of Afghanistan was the correct one.
Biden’s faith in his decision was never shaken, except when a relative of a US service member killed in the terrorist bombing at the Kabul airport on August 26 screamed at him to "burn in hell."
Foer is a staff writer for the outlet and former editor of The New Republic.
*The Taliban is an organization under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.