Biden’s view of job comes into focus after Afghan collapse

By JONATHAN LEMIRE and ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden actually made up his mind a long time ago about Afghanistan. For more than a decade, Biden advocated for an end to American involvement in the war there. But he did so as something of an outsider, a senator whose ultimate power came in the form of a single vote on Capitol Hill or a vice president who advised another president. But America’s longest war finally fell into Biden’s hands this year and he insisted that the U.S. finally withdraw from Afghanistan, settling on an Aug. 31 deadline. And despite the rapid collapse of the Afghan government, spurring a humanitarian crisis and searing criticism, he was resolute.