Joseph Biden, who returned to Washington earlier than planned from a vacation at Camp David, addressed the nation on the occasion situation in Afghanistan and pointed out that he was firmly behind the decision to withdraw American troops.
“I am completely behind my decision. After 20 years, I learned the hard way that it was never the right time to withdraw American forces,” Biden said.
He pointed out that he carefully weighed the risks before making a decision, but he admitted that the situation on the ground was going faster than he expected.
“We followed the situation closely and planned everything in detail. However, I always said that I would be honest with the American people – it is true that everything happened faster than we expected,” Biden said.
He stressed that Americans cannot and should not die and fight in a war in which Afghans, he says, are not ready to fight for themselves.
“Afghan political leaders have given up and fled the country. The military has been defeated, somewhere without trying to fight. If nothing else, developments since last week have shown that ending US military engagement in Afghanistan is now the right decision,” Biden said.
He said that China and Russia would like the United States to continue spending billions of dollars in Afghanistan.
“Their army numbered 300,000 people, we gave them weapons, salaries, they got help from the air. We gave them a chance, but we couldn’t give them the will to fight,” Biden added, adding that he did not want to see more tombstones. a monument at Arlington Military Cemetery in Virginia.
“Afghans did nothing”
Biden said that he met at the White House with the Afghan president, who assured him that he would fight the Taliban.
“When I met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the White House in June, we talked openly. We talked about whether their military is ready to fight the civil war when we leave, whether their government wants to fight corruption. “They did nothing. Mr. Ghani assured me that their army would fight,” Biden continued.
He explained that the American mission in Afghanistan, which began two decades ago, was never aimed at “nation-building”.
“I went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: to capture those who attacked us on September 11, 2001, and to make sure that Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We never did. “We gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we caught him. That was ten years ago,” Biden recalled.
He emphasized that the only national interest in Afghanistan has always been the same – preventing a terrorist attack on the American homeland.
Biden said U.S. troops were trying to take control of the airport and establish air traffic. He warned that the United States would defend its troops with destructive force if the Taliban attacked them.
Criticism from all sides
Biden’s address to the nation regarding the situation in Afghanistan was eagerly awaited, which is why the US president returned to Washington earlier than planned from his vacation in Camp David, in order to finally respond to the criticism coming from all sides.
Numerous critics of Biden believe that it is inadmissible that the President of the United States did not speak out earlier, although his decision to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan directly affected the rapid advance of the Taliban, which ended with the capture of the capital Kabul.
Political opponents, but also numerous analysts, and even the media traditionally in favor of the Democrats, criticize the Biden administration because it did not predict what would happen when American soldiers leave Afghanistan.
They misjudged the situation on the ground, overestimated the strength and determination of the Afghan army, and underestimated the fanatical Taliban.
Even those who believe Biden’s decision to get the United States out of an exhausting war that they cannot win and are no longer interested in waging are appalled by the events at Kabul airport, where many Afghans have tried in every way possible to they grab American planes, and even climb for them before takeoff.
Biden also provoked the anger of war veterans who believe that the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan nullified decades of work and sacrifices of American soldiers and paved the way for a humanitarian catastrophe.
Criticism of Biden is also due to the way in which the employees of the American embassy, left until the last hour in Kabul, had to leave the facility, panicking, destroying sensitive documents and “objects that could be misused for propaganda purposes.”
Photographs of helicopters over the roof of the American embassy reminded many of similar scenes from Saigon in Vietnam in 1975, although US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claims that such comparisons are malicious and that, unlike the Vietnamese one, “the Afghan mission was successful”.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stood in Biden’s defense, saying that the speed with which the Taliban conquered cities was much higher than anyone expected, including Afghans, and many analysts who watched the events carefully.
“The president did not believe that it was inevitable for the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan. He believed that the Afghan security forces could fight because we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars on them, training them with the best equipment, supporting them with American forces. there was a conflict, they decided to withdraw and not fight for their country, “Sullivan said.
Comments are closed.