Post by trueblue on Aug 5, 2022 21:02:06 GMT
'Projecting Strength Abroad Isn’t Simply About Killing Terrorists. It’s About Standing Up to Despots, Too.'
"Ayman Al Zawahiri was a craven terrorist, but projecting strength should also mean standing up to autocrats. Biden can start by securing the release of Jamal Khashoggi’s lawyer, Asim Ghafoor.
Ayman Al Zawahiri, terrorist and Al Qaeda mastermind, was killed in a targeted U.S. air strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. He died with the blood of innocent civilians on his hands.
President Biden is using the strike to bolster his approval here at home. It is troubling to watch yet another American president flog “War on Terror” themes to resurrect a laggard term. That said, Biden’s approval numbers began to slip toward their current historic lows after the botched pullout from Afghanistan, where Al Zawahiri was killed. The shambolic, if courageous, pullout left open questions about whether the U.S. had even accomplished the aims it had set out to achieve after 9/11. This strike, then, offers the Biden administration a fig leaf, demonstrating that even in Taliban hands, Afghanistan is not off-limits for direct action against terrorist targets.
It’s clear that Biden saw it that way, too. Consider his address to the nation directly afterwards."
President Biden is using the strike to bolster his approval here at home. It is troubling to watch yet another American president flog “War on Terror” themes to resurrect a laggard term. That said, Biden’s approval numbers began to slip toward their current historic lows after the botched pullout from Afghanistan, where Al Zawahiri was killed. The shambolic, if courageous, pullout left open questions about whether the U.S. had even accomplished the aims it had set out to achieve after 9/11. This strike, then, offers the Biden administration a fig leaf, demonstrating that even in Taliban hands, Afghanistan is not off-limits for direct action against terrorist targets.
It’s clear that Biden saw it that way, too. Consider his address to the nation directly afterwards."