How the White House and Democrats hope to survive Biden’s political bruises

President Joe Biden was likely to lose Democratic control of Congress before last week’s carnage in Afghanistan. That’s more likely now. But the imminent loss of power makes politicians act with greater urgency. For Biden and his party, that just happens to represent their best hope of ultimately not losing […] Read more »

Overwhelming bipartisan support for keeping troops in Afghanistan until all Americans, Afghans who aided US out

With fewer than 4 in 10 Americans approving of President Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan, there is overwhelming bipartisan support for keeping U.S. troops in the country until all Americans and Afghans who aided the United States during the 20-year war have been evacuated, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds. […] Read more »

American Public Opinion and the Afghanistan Situation

Public opinion relating to the U.S. and Afghanistan can be divided into four categories: (1) Americans’ basic assessments of the 20-year U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, (2) Americans’ views of the decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops at this point, (3) Americans’ views of the way in which the withdrawal […] Read more »

It wasn’t hubris that drove America into Afghanistan. It was fear.

… We live history forward, in the chaos of onrushing events, without a clear guide. But we judge history backward, smugly armed with the knowledge of what did happen and uninterested in what might have happened. This partly explains the oscillation of U.S. foreign policy over the decades between periods […] Read more »

To Predict Biden’s Political Fate, Keep an Eye on Independents

What is potentially so damaging for President Biden and Democrats isn’t so much the substance of the decision to pull out of Afghanistan. After all, any chance of the conflict turning out well ended about 15 years ago. It was the shambolic execution of it. The intelligence community, Pentagon officials, […] Read more »

Biden headed for divisive debate over resettlement of Afghanistan refugees

President Biden, already facing political peril over the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, has in recent days waded into an escalating domestic debate over thousands of refugees slated to be resettled in the United States. Criticism is intensifying on Fox News, among Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin where some refugees are […] Read more »