Will Afghanistan define Joe Biden’s presidency?

Veteran diplomat says US president’s credibility is in ‘tatters’

Joe Biden
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Joe Biden defended the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in a televised address yesterday after the Taliban took Kabul.

Amid mounting criticism of his handling of the crisis, the US president admitted that the collapse of Afghanistan’s government had occurred “more quickly” than he expected, but insisted: “I stand squarely behind my decision.”

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.