WASHINGTON – Even as President Joe Biden assured Americans that he was ending the war in Afghanistan, he directed a very different message to Islamic State terrorists who had killed U.S. service members in a suicide bombing there.
Chris Megerian WASHINGTON – Even as President Joe Biden assured Americans that he was ending the war in Afghanistan, he directed a very different message to Islamic State terrorists who had killed U.S. service members in a suicide bombing there. “We are not done with you yet,” he said. The statement was a reminder that the “forever war” isn’t really over, despite the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan after two decades. Instead of closing the door on American operations, Afghanistan will probably join the roster of countries where Washington has awarded itself sweeping powers to target a range of terrorist groups. This new phase in Afghanistan could resemble operations in Somalia and Yemen, where U.S. forces have used commandos and drones to hunt offshoots of the al-Qaida terrorist network. These missions are often shrouded in secrecy from start to finish, existing in a gray area between war and peace. “It’s complicated from a legal perspective, a policy perspective, an operational perspective,” said Luke Hartig, a former senior director for counter-terrorism in President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. Former officials said the task in Afghanistan will become more difficult now that the Taliban has retaken control and the U.S. has shut down its embassy and military bases. The Central Intelligence Agency, which plays a leading role in targeting terrorist groups, won’t be able to cultivate sources of information as easily as before. And if American spies locate a target, they’ll need to order an “over the horizon” airstrike from a drone or warplane that could take hours to reach landlocked Afghanistan. “The counter-terrorism situation in Afghanistan has gotten much worse,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA base chief in the eastern part of the country. “It just has. Period.” How exactly the mission will be conducted is being evaluated by the White House. Officials have been immersed in a months-long review of policies governing drone strikes outside traditional battlefields — a framework that now applies to Afghanistan.
