With the Taliban advancing across rural parts of Afghanistan, and criticism mounting over what some view as an overly hasty departure, the Biden administration is staring down a few short weeks to make a handful of critical decisions it's put off until the last minute.
How will it safely evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters and their families? What policy will it implement on drone strikes? How will it secure the largest civilian airport in Kabul? And, perhaps most importantly, what will it do with the hundreds of American contractors in the country who service and maintain complex, expensive military equipment the Afghans need to fight the Taliban?
The answers to those questions will essentially determine the kind of relationship the US has with Afghanistan, and by extension the likely fate of the country for the foreseeable future.
President Joe Biden didn't want to address any of these questions last Friday, growing visibly frustrated when asked by reporters. But after meeting with his national security team Thursday, Biden defended his decision to end the war and pledged to evacuate Afghan interpreters who have worked with US troops, along with their families.
"Our message to those men and women is clear: There is a home for you in the United States, if you so choose, and we will stand with you, as you stood with us," the President said in remarks from the White House, noting that his administration has "dramatically accelerated" the procedure time for these Afghans to secure visas and that relocation flights would begin this month to US facilities overseas and third countries as their visa applications are processed. Biden added that the operation has "identified facilities outside the US as well as in third countries to host our Afghan allies, if they choose."
However, his remarks Thursday did not fill out any more details surrounding the US withdrawal.
"The war appears to be forcing the administration to make some quick decisions," said Seth Jones, director of the International Threat Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and author of In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan.
Although the Biden administration has stressed that it will maintain its commitment to Afghanistan through diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian support, Jones said, "The Afghans haven't gotten the message. They see essentially abandonment. That has a lot of consequences if we see fragmentation [of Afghan security forces]."
"If we see that fracturing, they're not going to care about US financial assistance. They're not going to care about over-the-horizon support," he added, using the military's term for support from outside the country.
Disjointed messaging
The orange-red radar dish near Bagram Air Base's two-mile runway was still spinning four days after the final US flight took off in the early morning light last Friday, one of the few signs of activity at the sprawling complex that was the heart of the American military presence in Afghanistan for two decades. Empty white pickup trucks sat next to abandoned white buses, a ghost fleet to match this newly deserted ghost town.
The speed of the US withdrawal from Bagram caught many by surprise, including even the Afghan military. One senior Afghan officer told CNN that he was given less than 24 hours to secure the perimeter of the massive compound before the last Americans left.
The Biden administration said last week it would take up to two additional months to withdraw the last few remaining troops from Afghanistan. Pentagon officials denied there was any slowdown, but multiple officials told CNN the complete drawdown had been expected to be completed by mid-July, a faster timetable than what now seems planned.
This week, Gen. Scott Miller visited Brussels to update NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the withdrawal of US forces. But several US officials have indicated their frustration to CNN with Miller in the final steps of the dra...