The constant companions
As America pulled out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden gave a speech. In it he mentioned, briefly, his son Beau, who died of an aggressive brain cancer in 2015, when he was 46. Why? In a defiant speech defending the chaotic withdrawal that ended in devastation in Kabul, it was more than a reference to Biden’s own grief and loss, powerful forces in his life since he entered public life in 1972. It hints at a belief the president has about the causes of his son’s death; a belief that colours his view of America’s foreign interventions, and gives depth to our understanding of a president whose political career has been bookended by tragedy. Basia Cummings, Editor
