Strike against al Qaeda: A victory for Joe Biden - with a bitter realization

Barack Obama had them, as did Donald Trump.

Strike against al Qaeda: A victory for Joe Biden - with a bitter realization

Barack Obama had them, as did Donald Trump. Now the 46th President of the United States was also able to announce success in the fight against terror: "This terrorist leader no longer exists," announced Joe Biden on Monday evening (local time) that al Qaeda boss Aiman ​​al Zawahiri was in at the weekend killed in a drone attack in the Afghan capital Kabul (read more about the background here). "Now justice has been done," Biden said.

The successful operation comes in handy for the President. In view of domestic political problems, such as the rising cost of living and oil prices as a result of the Ukraine war, the approval rating for Biden among the population is currently manageable at 39.9 percent, and the value among US Democrats was even lower recently. According to recent polls, his party is threatened with defeat by the Republicans in the congressional elections in three months.

The killing of al Sawahiri could now give Biden a significant boost in voter support, as has happened to his predecessors. At the time, Obama's approval ratings shot up after the then al Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden, head of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA and predecessor of the now killed al Zawahiri, was hunted down by a US special forces. Donald Trump's reputation also increased after the strike against IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

President Biden therefore wants the successful deployment to be understood as a promise kept - and as proof that it is possible to protect America from terrorists even without thousands of US soldiers on Afghan soil.

Almost a year ago, the United States withdrew all troops from Afghanistan, ending international military operations in the country after almost 20 years. The Taliban had just taken power in Kabul. Their rapid campaign of conquest made the international troop withdrawal more difficult, and the chaos at the time was also attributed to Biden, who came under heavy pressure in the face of the debacle and promised at the time that he would not give up the fight against terrorism in the region.

Against this background, Biden linked the strike against al Zawahiri with a message to the terrorist group: "No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out ."

However, the coup also opens a chapter that was believed to be closed. According to US findings, members of the Taliban leadership knew that the al Qaeda boss was in the Afghan capital - and thus clearly violated agreements with the USA.

In February 2020, the US government under President Trump signed an agreement with the militant Islamist Taliban in Qatar, in which the complete withdrawal of US troops was promised. The American withdrawal follows the premise that the Taliban will ensure that Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terrorists. Among other things, the Taliban had promised a break with al Qaeda.

Is this agreement that Trump made and Biden implemented now waste? "It's really hard for me to believe that al Zawahiri was in Kabul without at least part of the Taliban leadership knowing about it," former CIA director Michael Morell told CBS News Monday, noting that he was " can live "quite openly" and doesn't seem to be trying to hide.

The killing apparently took place after months of surveillance by the US secret services, who are said to have tracked down al-Sawahiri in the Afghan capital earlier this year and then spent months verifying his identity. This was reported by the "New York Times", citing US officials. Finally, he was tracked down in a shelter in Kabul. There he was killed on Saturday evening (local time) when he stepped onto the balcony of the house.

If the USA had the idea of ​​being able to look at the Afghanistan chapter in the rear-view mirror after the troop withdrawal, this assumption could now turn out to be a fallacy. Because what if the country was not only a haven for the killed al-Qaeda boss - but also for other terrorists with bad intentions towards the USA?

"Go back 21 years, to the days after 9/11," the US portal "Politico" urges its readers in a contribution to the debate. At the time, President George W. Bush demanded that Afghanistan extradite bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders. "When it didn't, the US launched an invasion that quickly ended Taliban rule and became the first chapter in a two-decade-long, trillion-dollar campaign that ended in chaos last year." The author of the text asks, "If the Taliban opened up their country to a key figure in the 9/11 attacks, what does that tell us about who else will be welcomed into Afghanistan?"

President Biden, in his own words, does not want to tolerate any safe haven for terrorists. In his speech, he stressed that the US would "never again allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists because he (al Zawahiri) is gone and we will make sure nothing happens."

For the Republicans, on the other hand, it is clear: the American withdrawal under Biden's command has endangered the United States. For example, the fact that the al Qaeda chief was in Afghanistan reflected the "complete failure of the Biden administration's policy towards that country," said Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma in a statement. For Congressman Michael McCaul from Texas, the airstrike was a "reminder that the American people were lied to by President Biden." The terrorist group has not "disappeared" from Afghanistan, as Biden wanted to believe, McCaul was quoted as saying by the "New York Times".

For President Biden, the air strike is a success, but it raises uncomfortable questions. For example: Is the Afghanistan chapter really closed?