Joe Biden is taking it from all sides these days. Everyone seems to be unhappy with his withdrawal from Afghanistan, from the former president who signed the framework for it and the British warmongers who hoped to piggyback on the US war indefinitely, to the mainstream press that has otherwise been more lapdog than watchdog the past seven months and the top Democrats who have joined the harsh Republican attacks on the pullout.

Too bad for them, because in this case, Biden is right, and they are wrong. Watching the establishment froth at the mouth at the fact that this pointless, appalling war is finally ending — and the drop in support for boththe pullout and the administration that’s come with it — is as good an illustration as you’re going to get of just how politically courageous the president’s decision to withdraw and stick to his guns has been.

This website isn’t in the habit of giving the Biden White House false or undeserved credit. Though in some respects better than anyone could have expected given the president’s past career, the administration’s record so far has fallen far short in a variety areas, from its handling of the pandemic and plans for economic recovery to its Trump-like response to immigration and climate change. But with this decision, Biden has done what the last three presidents have talked about doing but ultimately shied away from, and in the process has broken with not just the hulking inertia of US national security policy, but his own historical  shortcomings as a politician.