“This terrorist leader no longer exists”: The killing of al-Qaeda boss Aiman al Sawahiri is a victory for US President Joe Biden. However, the coup also reopens a chapter that was believed to be closed.
Barack Obama had them, as did Donald Trump. Now the 46th President of the United States has also been 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 Sawahiri was at the weekend killed in a drone strike 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 internal political problems, such as the rising cost of living and oil prices as a result of the Ukraine warthe approval ratings for Biden in the population are currently manageable 39.9 percentwithin the US Democrats the value was even lower recently. In the congressional elections in three months, his party is threatened according to recent polls a defeat by the Republicans.
The killing of al Zawahiri could now give Biden a significant boost in voter support, as has happened to his predecessors. at that time Obama’s approval ratings shot up, after the then al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States and predecessor of the now killed al-Zawahiri, was hunted down by a US special forces unit. Also Donald Trump’s reputation rose after the attack on IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
Joe Biden’s promise
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, the chaos at that time was also attributed to Biden, who came under heavy pressure in the face of the debacle and at the time promised not to 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 information members of the Taliban leadership would have known that the al Qaeda boss was in the Afghan capital – and thus clearly violated agreements with the USA.
In February 2020, the US government signed in Qatar under President Trump Agreement with the militant Islamist Taliban, 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. The Taliban had promised, among other things, 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 said on Monday CBS Newshe was able to live there “quite openly” and apparently did not try to hide.
The killing apparently took place after months of surveillance by the US secret services, who are said to have tracked down al Zawahiri in the Afghan capital earlier this year and then spent months verifying his identity. That reported the “New York Times” citing US officials. Eventually he was found in a shelter in Kabul. There he was killed early Sunday morning Kabul time when he stepped onto the balcony of the house.
What if…?
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 demands “politico” 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 further happens.”
For the Republicans, on the other hand, it is clear that the American withdrawal under Biden’s command has endangered the United States. For example, the fact that the al Qaeda chief was in Afghanistan reflects the “complete failure of the Biden administration’s policy toward 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.” McCaul was quoted as saying by the New York Times that the terrorist group had not “disappeared” from Afghanistan, as Biden wanted to believe.
For President Biden, the airstrike is a success, but it raises uncomfortable questions. For example: Is the Afghanistan chapter really closed?