{"id":33711,"date":"2021-07-04T14:00:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T05:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/jul\/04\/observer-view-on-us-and-nato-withdrawal-from-afghanistan"},"modified":"2021-07-04T14:00:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T05:00:13","slug":"the-observer-view-on-us-and-nato-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-observer-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=33711","title":{"rendered":"The Observer view on US and Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan | Observer editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This shabby, half-hidden retreat by western forces abandons a nation to mayhem, civil war and terror<\/p>\n<p>The conflict in Afghanistan \u2013 America\u2019s longest war \u2013 is at an end, or so President Joe Biden is expected to declare this week. At an end, too, is Britain and Nato\u2019s military involvement, dating back to the invasion that followed the 2001 al-Qaida attacks on the US. Except the conflict is not over. In truth, it is intensifying. What\u2019s changed is that the western allies are, in effect, washing their hands of it.<\/p>\n<p>By setting an unconditional US withdrawal date of 11 September shortly after taking office, Biden triggered an unseemly military scramble for the exit that has been joined by all residual Nato forces, including most UK troops. It now appears the vast majority will have left by today, without ceremony or fanfare, almost by the back door. The fourth of July is American independence day. It may also come to be remembered as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jul\/02\/uk-to-bring-home-last-remaining-troops-in-afghanistan-this-weekend\" title=\"\">deserting Afghanistan day<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/jul\/04\/observer-view-on-us-and-nato-withdrawal-from-afghanistan\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This shabby, half-hidden retreat by western forces abandons a nation to mayhem, civil war and terrorThe conflict in Afghanistan \u2013 America\u2019s longest war \u2013 is at an end, or so President Joe Biden is expected to declare this week. At an end, too, is Brita&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2234,2233,405,939,470,61,44,47,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-donald-rumsfeld","category-george-bush","category-iraq","category-joe-biden","category-nato","category-south-and-central-asia","category-taliban","category-us-news","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33712,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33711\/revisions\/33712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}