US President Joe Biden on Monday defended his decision to pull his troops out of Afghanistan in the face of escalating criticism fuelled by heart-wrenching scenes of Afghan civilians trying to flee the country.
“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” Biden said in an address to the nation from the White House on Monday in a brief return from vacation at the presidential retreat in the state of Maryland.
Biden sought to explain the chaotic scenes and the speed of the Taliban takeover, which he admitted happened “more quickly than we had anticipated”.
“So what’s happened? Afghanistan’s political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,” Biden said. “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”
The American president has faced intense criticism in recent days as the Taliban rapidly took over Afghanistan emboldened by the withdrawal of US troops and precipitated a sense of desperation among Americans, allies and Afghan partners.
{{/usCountry}}The American president has faced intense criticism in recent days as the Taliban rapidly took over Afghanistan emboldened by the withdrawal of US troops and precipitated a sense of desperation among Americans, allies and Afghan partners.
{{/usCountry}}Biden admitted being saddened by the events that have followed since, but, he said, “I do not regret my decision to end America’s war-fighting in Afghanistan.”
Experts said the part of Biden’s speech that laid out his reasons for withdrawing from Afghanistan seemed familiar, as he has been vocal about it for years.
In a nearly 19-minute speech from the East Room of the White House, Biden laid out his reasons, once again, for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, saying he has believed for long that the mission should have been to get the perpetrators of the 9/11 terror attacks and to let them never again use Afghanistan to launch another attack on the United States.
The US president, who earlier sought to deflect blame for the Afghan debacle on the deal he inherited from former president Donald Trump, was scathing in his attack on Afghanistan’s leaders and the government forces.
“We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force - something the Taliban doesn’t have,” the US president said as he defended his position.
“When I hosted President [Ashraf] Ghani and chairman Abdullah [Abdullah] at the White House in June and again when I spoke by phone to Ghani in July, we had very frank conversations,” Biden said. “We talked about how Afghanistan should prepare to fight their civil wars after the US military departed, to clean up the corruption in government so the government could function for the Afghan people. We talked extensively about the need for Afghan leaders to unite politically.”
“They failed to do any of that,” Biden said, and proceeded to further attack Afghan partners. “I also urged them to engage in diplomacy, to seek a political settlement with the Taliban. This advice was flatly refused. Mr. Ghani insisted the Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong.”