Folge 45: Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan – A Sea Change in U.S. Foreign Policy?

U.S. President Joe Biden declared last month that his country had accomplished its mission of denying terrorists a safe haven in Afghanistan and announced complete withdrawal of the roughly 3.000 remaining U.S. troops by September 11 – the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States that triggered the intervention. U.S. troops began withdrawal on April 25; it could be completed as early as July 4. America’s war in Afghanistan has seen four presidents, more than 13,000 air strikes, cost 2,400 American lives, and left 20,000 troops injured. This episode of the HCA podcast looks back on this conflict and ponders the future of Afghanistan. Anja Schüler talks with&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_general_(United_States)" target="_blank" title="Lieutenant general (United States)" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing:0px"><span style="color:black;mso-color-alt:windowtext;background: white;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Lieutenant General&nbsp;(ret.) Ben Hodges, who served as commanding general,&nbsp;<span style="color:black;mso-color-alt:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline: none">United States Army Europe&nbsp;and is currently the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Center_for_European_Policy_Analysis&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" target="_blank" title="Center for European Policy Analysis (page does not exist)" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2; text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px"><span style="color:black;mso-color-alt:windowtext;background:white;text-decoration: none;text-underline:none">Center for European Policy Analysis&nbsp;in Washington D.C.