Don't ask Biden about the war

Afghanistan is going to be Joe Biden's Achilles Heel. OK it was actually Donald Trump who ordered America's involvement in the war to be brought to an end and instituted peace talks with the Taliban. But it's now Biden's administration, so he has to take the rough with the smooth, and he doesn't like the rough, not when it comes in the form of questions from impertinent reporters who want to know what he is going to do if the Afhgan government collapses and there's a raging slaughter in the next few weeks. Biden replied that he wasn't holding a press conference to answer negative - sorry, he said later, he meant to say legitimate - questions about Afghanistan. It was about to be July 4th,the great American celebration holiday and he wanted everyone to be happy and nice and optimistic about everything because everything (else) was going so well. Like the increase in jobs and the vaccination programme etc. Poor Joe, he can't stand it when he rolls out all the good news and then the first question is about the dire situation in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Mr President, that's the way it works. Reporters can be a pain in the whatsit but actually a question about Afghanistan on the day when it was announced that the huge Bagram airfield no longer had American troops there was wholly relevant, never mind the jobs figures and the vaccine record. July 4th or not the president has a duty to tell the American public what he thinks and fears about the biggest decision he has made so far in his presidency - to stick with Trump's policy of getting out of Afghanistan and removing every piece of materiel and equipment put into that country over two decades. It wasn't a negative question he was asked, it was a realistic one. He will have to deal with the political consequences if Afghanistan is overrun by murdering, slaughtering insurgents and militia. Not a good prospect for the Afghan people or for the US military who made so many sacrifices over 20 years of war.