The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri is big deal. He was the last of the 9/11 Al Qaeda leadership still alive and free. Shameless war pig hacks like Marc Thiessen are going to try and spin this as yet another reason why it was wrong to "abandon" Afghanistan last year. From a GOP perspective, Biden's approval ratings began to tumble around the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and with the Democratic showing on the generic ballot polling improving, why not trot out last August's greatest hits?
The reason to withdraw from Afghanistan was clear: We were not going to be able to create a legitimate democratic government in that country no matter how long we stayed. Staying became a sort of solipsistic version of foreign policy: all that matters is the occupation of Afghanistan because the occupation of Afghanistan is all that matters. There was no achievable mission.
The argument that festering pustules like Thiessen want to advance is that leaving Afghanistan makes us less safe. But America did not abandon its security prerogatives when it abandoned Afghanistan. The strike on Zawahiri is proof that we don't need to occupy a war-shattered country on the other side of the world to exact justice on terrorists and keep America safe.
By the way - not that anyone cares anymore but - more Americans will die of Covid this month than died on 9/11, if we really care about saving American lives...
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