After skedaddling from Afghanistan with nary a NATO consultation, the Biden administration is seeking alliance cooperation to cope with the fallout of the defeat. After failing to fight the jihadis "over there" we find we have to fight them "over here."
Against the backdrop of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the top U.S. military officer is meeting in Greece with NATO counterparts this weekend, hoping to forge more basing, intelligence sharing and other agreements to prevent terrorist groups from regrouping and threatening America and the region.
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the meeting of NATO defense chiefs will focus in part on the way ahead now that all alliance troops have pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban are in control.
Milley, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and American intelligence officials have warned that al-Qaida or the Islamic State group could regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the United States in one year to two years.
Maybe--now stick with me because I'm just spitballing here--but maybe the Biden skedaddle debacle isn't the brilliant success that the Biden administration has tried to portray it.
The jihadi over-the-horizon threat to Europe is apparently far more potent than America's over-the-horizon threat to jihadis:
The Afghan man who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month was an enthusiastic and beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization, his colleagues say, painting a stark contrast to the Pentagon’s claims that he was an Islamic State group militant about to carry out an attack on American troops.
I'm sure our NATO allies are thrilled that NATO has to make a greater effort in Europe to defend Europe from Islamist terrorism.
Whatevs. Who could have guessed that killing jihadis without local intelligence would be difficult?
