Washington (AFP) – Weeks before the first anniversary of a retreat from Afghanistan that critics said exposed President Joe Biden’s weakness, he shrugged off both Covid and critics to announce the killing in Kabul of Al-Qaeda’s leader — an operation the Democrat says shows the US remains as strong as ever. “When I ended our military mission in Afghanistan almost a year ago, I made the decision that after 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan,” Biden told the nation late Monday as he announced the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri. “I mad…