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US left to depend on the Taliban for a safe exit from Afghanistan defeat
CNN
The depth of the mess the United States finds itself in Afghanistan is encapsulated by the fact that it must now effectively rely on its enemy, the Taliban, as it extricates itself from the humiliating endgame of its longest war.
As President Joe Biden returned to Washington Tuesday, breaking off his vacation at Camp David for a second time, the White House said that the Taliban had agreed to provide safe passage to Kabul's airport for civilians who have the right to live in the United States. But the assurances raise multiple questions, including:
The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.