What The Exit From Afghanistan Tells Us About How Biden Sees The World

In January 2002, when the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan reopened for the first time since 1989, Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the first member of Congress to visit him in Kabul was the then-senator from Delaware, Joe Biden.

"One of his really great qualities, I thought, was his driving need to see things for himself ... and I just really respected that," Crocker said, pointing out that Biden also visited Iraq many times.

Crocker had considered the president an old-school internationalist, in the vein of presidents going back to World War II who believed in U.S. leadership on the global stage and spearheaded large international organizations. But with the havoc unfolding in Afghanistan, Crocker says he can no longer make sense of the man he once thought would restore American credibility and international order after Donald Trump.

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