Presidential War Record
Joe Biden: Afghanistan's Chaotic End
He ended America's longest war — the right decision, catastrophically executed. Then he funded the largest proxy war since the Cold War. The pattern holds: end one conflict, enable another.
🇦🇫 The Afghanistan Withdrawal
On August 15, 2021, Kabul fell to the Taliban as Afghan government forces — trained and equipped by the US for 20 years at a cost of $88 billion — collapsed in days. President Ghani fled the country with suitcases of cash. The US-backed government ceased to exist.
What followed was the most chaotic military evacuation since Saigon. Desperate Afghans clung to departing aircraft and fell to their deaths. 124,000 people were airlifted in 17 days — a logistical feat overshadowed by the catastrophic planning failures that made it necessary.
Biden defended the withdrawal: “I was not going to extend this forever war.” He was right about that. But the execution — particularly the failure to evacuate Afghan allies and interpreters — was a moral and strategic disaster.
Abbey Gate: August 26, 2021
An ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated at Abbey Gate outside Kabul airport, killing 13 US service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians. They were the last Americans killed in America's longest war. Their average age was 22.
Three days later, a US drone strike targeting ISIS-K killed 10 Afghan civilians — 7 of them children — and zero terrorists. The Pentagon initially called it a “righteous strike.” No one was disciplined.
🇺🇦 The Ukraine Proxy War
“We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Biden's administration provided Ukraine with the most advanced US weapons systems short of nuclear arms: HIMARS, Patriot air defense, Abrams tanks, F-16 support, and vast quantities of ammunition and intelligence.
The administration carefully avoided calling it a proxy war. It was, by every historical definition, a proxy war — the US funding, arming, training, and providing intelligence to one side of an armed conflict against a nuclear power.
Whether this was the right policy is debatable. What is not debatable: $175 billion is more than the US spends annually on education, and it was appropriated with far less public debate than any comparable expenditure in American history.
📅 Timeline
Biden announces full withdrawal from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.
Taliban offensive accelerates. Provincial capitals fall daily.
Kabul falls. President Ghani flees. Taliban take control.
ISIS-K suicide bombing at Abbey Gate kills 13 US Marines and 170 Afghan civilians.
US drone strike kills 10 Afghan civilians including 7 children — initially called a "righteous strike."
Last US troops leave Afghanistan. 20-year war ends.
Russia invades Ukraine. Biden begins massive military aid program.
$40 billion Ukraine aid package signed — more than most countries' entire defense budgets.
Total Ukraine aid passes $100B. US provides HIMARS, Patriot missiles, Abrams tanks.
Continued airstrikes in Syria, Iraq, and Somalia against ISIS and al-Shabaab.
US strikes Houthi targets in Yemen after Red Sea shipping attacks.
Ukraine aid total exceeds $175B. No US combat troops deployed.
Biden leaves office. Troops remain in Syria and Iraq.
🗽 The Assessment
Joe Biden did what three predecessors couldn't or wouldn't: he ended the Afghanistan war. For that he deserves credit. The decision to leave was correct — the 20-year mission had failed, and no amount of additional time would change that.
But the execution was a disaster. The failure to plan for the Afghan government's collapse, the abandonment of Afghan allies, the Abbey Gate bombing, the drone strike that killed children — these were not inevitable. They were failures of planning, intelligence, and leadership.
And even as he ended one war, Biden enabled another. $175 billion to Ukraine represents an enormous commitment of American resources to a conflict with no clear end state, no treaty obligations, and significant escalation risks against a nuclear power.
Biden's legacy is the American presidential pattern in miniature: end one war, fund the next one. The machinery never stops.