Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, talked with Straight Arrow News about the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. Katulis specializes in national security and counterterrorism with a background in the Middle East.

Katulis said the Biden Administration’s messaging on the withdrawal, including “ending endless wars” and “ending forever wars”, isn’t what many people want to hear.

Katulis said it rings “hollow in the face of events on the ground because it’s quite clear that the war in Afghanistan, no matter whether or not U.S. troops are there will continue, and may get worse.”

Katulis went on to say this withdrawal “is just the latest in a series of many view as betrayals by the United States, stretching across many Administrations.”

He elaborated saying there is “just this sense that America is not as strategically reliable. We heard this a lot in places like Syria after former President Donald Trump announced a withdrawal on Twitter of U.S. Forces. And yes, U.S. forces are still there, but just this sense that we’re a pendulum-type country, swinging back and forth and many in many ways, and that we’re not standing with different partners and allies in different ways, I think does leave a negative message.”