U.S. Weighs Possibility of Airstrikes if Afghan Forces Face Crisis
The Pentagon is considering whether to intervene with warplanes or drones in the event that Kabul is in danger of falling to the Taliban, though no decisions have been made.
A United States Air Force pilot training Afghan service members in 2018. Afghan security forces are at risk of being overwhelmed by the Taliban once American troops withdraw from the country.Credit.Bryan Denton for The New York Times
June 9, 2021, 7:21 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON The Pentagon is considering seeking authorization to carry out airstrikes to support Afghan security forces if Kabul or another major city is in danger of falling to the Taliban, potentially introducing flexibility into President Biden’s plan to end the United States military presence in the conflict, senior officials said.
Four Priorities For The Biden-Putin Summit | Opinion Ilan Berman
, Senior Vice President, American Foreign Policy Council On 6/10/21 at 6:00 AM EDT
Next week, President Joe Biden will meet with Vladimir Putin in Geneva for his first head-of-state summit with the Russian leader. The June 16th meeting promises to be a high-stakes affair. Despite his earlier rhetoric, President Biden has signaled that he is eager to use the occasion to improve the U.S.-Russia relationship, which has become increasingly adversarial in recent years.
But precisely how he might do that remains to be seen. The administration has already sent some rather pointed signals to the Kremlin regarding its political flexibility. It carefully calibrated its response to last year s massive SolarWinds hack in order to ensure a proportionate response, but has so far failed to respond meaningfully to last month s disruption of the Colonial pipeline. And, despite congressional protests, the White