Several years ago, at China’s Central Party School, a recently retired Chinese military officer said his colleagues marveled at how the United States was wasting its assets.
On Tuesday, one of Mr. Biden’s top advisers suggested that the president had come to the same conclusion. To address the threats and challenges of 2021 rather than those of 2001, he said, “requires us to close the book on a 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.”
But that choice comes with considerable risks, which is why it took two and a half months, and some contentious arguments with the Pentagon leadership, to make it.
His advisers acknowledged that the president would take the blame if Afghanistan collapsed into the hands of the Taliban, or, of much greater concern, again became a haven for terrorists intent on striking the United States.
Mr. Biden’s critics wasted no time painting the decision as a sign of the United States in retreat, ignoring that only six months ago, Mr. Trump declared, erroneously it turned out, that he would have all American troops home for Christmas.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who also tried to persuade Mr. Trump to stay, called the decision “dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous.”
And while Democrats were generally supportive, some expressed concern about maintaining the ability to deal militarily with the emergence of a threat from Afghanistan.