Wednesday 3 August 2022 06:03 PM Biden sold America on the false narrative that Al Qaeda was 'gone' from ... trends now
Bill Roggio is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of FDD's Long war Journal. From 1991 to 1997, Roggio served as a signalman and infantryman in the U.S. Army and New Jersey National Guard
One year ago this month, President Biden told Americans that Al Qaeda was 'gone' from Afghanistan.
On Monday, we learned that clearly was not the case.
'We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan as well as getting Osama bin Laden. And we did,' he told reporters on August 20, 2021, as American and allied forces hastily prepared to pull out of the country.
President Biden had set August 31st as the last day for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan after 20 years of war and the deadline had caught the world by surprise.
'Look, let's put this thing in perspective,' he insisted amid calls to delay the evacuation, 'What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al Qaeda gone?'
Days after those remarks, on August 26, 2021, a suicide bomb ripped through a crowd of soldiers and civilians at Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul.
By that point, the Afghan military had melted away and the Taliban had overrun the country.
Desperate people - American and Afghan - crowded outside the airport gates, as U.S. Marines stood guard on its concrete walls.
The world watched as Afghans stormed the runaways. Some clung to the landing gear of departing planes and fell to their deaths after the aircraft left the ground.
One year ago this month, President Biden (left) told Americans that Al Qaeda was 'gone' from Afghanistan. On Monday, the White House revealed a CIA drone strike killed Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri (right) in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The suicide bomber's blast killed nearly 200 people, including 13 members of the United States military.
And still, Biden declared 'extraordinary success,' even as he recognized the loss of life.
According to Biden, after two decades of war, America's mission had been accomplished.
It hadn't.
It would have been more difficult to sell that narrative to American people if Al Qaeda's close ties to the new Taliban 'government' had been fully acknowledged.
But officials from the Biden administration, as well as the Trump administration, had assured us that the Taliban had cut ties with bin Laden's fanatics.
On Monday, the White House revealed a CIA drone strike killed Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Zawahiri wasn't found cowering in the remote, mountainous regions of northern or eastern Afghanistan, or camped out in the far-flung provinces of the south.
The 71-year-old was killed on the balcony of a house owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, arguably the most powerful and influential Taliban official.
Haqqani is one of two deputy Taliban emirs and the Taliban's interior minister.
His Haqqani Network played a key role in the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
To put it simply, the top tier leadership of the Taliban sponsored the top leader of Al Qaeda at a safe house in the heart of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Far from being 'gone' from Afghanistan – Al Qaeda's Number One was being sheltered by the very government to whom Biden ceded control of the country.
