20 Years On, the War on Terror Grinds Along With No End in Sight

"Between law enforcement cooperation, military training and the sharing of intelligence, the war on terror has been one of the better examples of multilateralism in recent decades."

"In the feverish aftermath of 9/11, he framed the battle in Manichaean terms, not just as a law enforcement or counterterrorism challenge, but as a twilight struggle between good and evil."

"There are other explanations for the lack of a major foreign attack: tighter border security and the ubiquity of the internet, which has made it easier to track and disrupt jihadi movements; or the upheavals of the Arab Spring, which shifted the sights of extremists to their own societies."

"Some Republicans called for Mr. Biden to be impeached after the suicide attack at Kabul's airport that killed 13 service members -- something that would have been impossible to imagine happening to George W. Bush after 9/11."

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"Mr. Trump and former aides, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have been scathing in their criticism of Mr. Biden, never mind that they negotiated the deal with the Taliban that pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners of war and set the clock ticking for the American withdrawal in 2021.nn"

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"Mr. Trump and former aides, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have been scathing in their criticism of Mr. Biden, never mind that they negotiated the deal with the Taliban that pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners of war and set the clock ticking for the American withdrawal in 2021.nn"

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"Mr. Trump and former aides, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have been scathing in their criticism of Mr. Biden, never mind that they negotiated the deal with the Taliban that pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners of war and set the clock ticking for the American withdrawal in 2021.nn"

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"Few presidents offered a more succinct description of this new kind of warfare than Barack Obama, speaking to the cadet graduates at the United States Military Academy in 2014."

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""If you had said on 9/12 that we'd have only 100 people killed by jihadi terrorism and only one foreign terrorist attack in the United States over the next 20 years, you'd have been laughed out of the room," said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism in the Obama administration."

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"In the ensuing years, Mr. Biden became disenchanted with the corruption of its pro-Western leaders and skeptical that the United States could ever unify its warring tribes."

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"Biden's Shifting Positions"

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"Mr. Biden was present at the creation of the war on terror."

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"Professor Hoffman said he worried that the Biden administration's perceived lack of consultation with European allies, which has angered political leaders, would filter down into the intelligence ranks"

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"When President Biden told an exhausted nation on Aug. 31 that the last C-17 cargo plane had left Taliban-controlled Kabul, ending two decades of American military misadventure in Afghanistan, he defended the frantic, bloodstained exit with a simple statement: "I was not going to extend this forever war.""

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"The attack, which the Pentagon called a "righteous strike" to avert another deadly suicide bombing, showcased America's "over-the-horizon" capabilities, to use a phrase favored by Mr. Biden."

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""We have to develop a strategy that matches this diffuse threat; one that expands our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin, or stirs up local resentments," Mr. Obama declared to a subdued audience on a chilly morning."

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"The president's matter-of-fact language is not unlike that of his old boss, Mr. Obama."

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"Mr. Biden has also imposed limits on drone strikes and commando operations, pending a review."

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"Now, having fulfilled his promise to leave Afghanistan, it falls to Mr. Biden to articulate the next chapter of the war on terror to a country that has tired of the subject."

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"While the pace of some activities slowed during the pandemic, she said, "Biden is doubling down on these far-flung operations.""

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"Mr. Biden has indicated he is open to updating one of the relics of the post-9/11 period:"

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"The defining contest of 2021, Mr. Biden has said, is between open societies and the autocrats in Moscow and Beijing."

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""I'm talking about a multilateral force with orders to shoot to kill," said Mr. Biden, who was then the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

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"Will the United States be able to sustain this colossal expense in an era where Mr. Biden is trying to recalibrate American foreign policy to tackle new challenges, like climate change, pandemics and the great-power rivalry with China?"

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"As Mr. Biden drew the curtain on Afghanistan, the C.I.A. was quietly expanding a secret base deep in the Sahara, from which it runs drone flights to monitor Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants in Libya, as well as extremists in Niger, Chad and Mali."

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