Why Losing a War Won’t Mean Losing an Election for Biden
While President Biden made a strong defense of his decision to leave Afghanistan and the execution of that withdrawal, declaring that he had brought America’s longest war to an overdue end, Republicans smell blood and some are already calling for his impeachment—a political threat that could quickly become a practical one should the party retake the House next year.
Biden has wanted to pull out of Afghanistan since at least 2009, when he stood alone in opposition to President Obama surging troops into the conflict. But now that 13 Americans service members have died executing his withdrawal and his poll numbers have plummeted, Republicans are suggesting that this is a political hit at home he may not recover from.
But as Presidents Reagan found out in Lebanon and Clinton in Somalia, a devastating military loss doesn’t always amount to a political repudiation. Asked if Reagan would be blamed for the deaths of 220 unarmed Marines killed by a truck bomb in Beirut as they were sleeping, a senior White House aide turned the question around. “Why would he be blamed? He wasn’t driving the truck.” To reporters' surprise, the aide, Ed Meese, readily agreed to put his name behind his remark. And he turned out to be right.