Joe Biden said he consistently opposed Obama's Afghanistan surge. Obama alumni say he's right.

(Image credit: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

published 20 December 2019

The Washington Post is publishing a series of reports, based on government documents, detailing U.S. efforts to mislead the public with rosy assessments of a stagnant war in Afghanistan over three administrations. Moderators of Thursday's night's Democratic presidential debate asked Joe Biden, who was vice president in one of those administrations, about testimony that the Obama White House pressured the Pentagon to show a surge of troops was producing results when the evidence said otherwise.

"I'm the guy, from the beginning, who argued that it was a big, big mistake to surge forces to Afghanistan, period," Biden said. "We should not have done it. And I argued against it, constantly."

Fact check: True. Reporters who covered former President Barack Obama's 2009 deliberations about whether to pull out of Afghanistan or double down confirm that Biden was on the losing side of that policy fight, as do Obama White House alumni who were actually part of the deliberations.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

The U.S. still has troops in Afghanistan.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.