With Afghanistan pull-out, US ditches 'forever wars' | Deccan Herald

Joe Biden’s pull-out from Afghanistan has stunned with its speed, but Washington already decided four years ago that it was fed up with “forever wars” and turned its attention to traditional great power competition with China and Russia. Fighting stateless terror groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State consumed the US security establishment, and trillions of dollars, since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Biden predecessor Donald Trump came to office in 2017 promising to quit Afghanistan, calling the war there a “mess” and a “waste.” The conflicts there and in Iraq had come to be characterized by unending troop deployments, persistent…