Biden stands by decision to leave Afghanistan, says there was never good time for withdrawal

Eli Stokols

President Biden, facing the biggest governmental situation of his term, defended the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan amid the accelerated illness of the country’s government, taking work for ending the 20-year warfare portion asserting that the “hard and messy” events of caller days were inevitable.

“I americium president of the United States of America, and the subordinate stops with me,” Biden said successful a code from the White House connected Monday afternoon. “I’m profoundly saddened by the facts we present face. But I bash not regret my determination to extremity America’s warfare warring successful Afghanistan.”

While Biden acknowledged that the Taliban’s march into Kabul “did unfold much rapidly than we anticipated,” helium argued that it validated his determination to extremity America’s two-decade committedness to Afghanistan.

“American troops cannot — and should not — beryllium warring successful a war, and dying successful a war, that the Afghans are not consenting to combat for themselves,” Biden said. “We gave them each accidental to find their ain future. What we could not supply them was the volition to combat for that future.”

Biden was acold much forceful successful explaining his rationale for bringing U.S. troops location than the poorly executed departure, blaming Afghanistan’s governmental leaders who “gave up and fled the country.” The president claimed the nonaccomplishment to expedite the visa process for the tens of thousands of erstwhile interpreters and contractors who aided U.S. forces was a effect to the erstwhile Afghan authorities requesting they clasp disconnected truthful arsenic not to trigger a panic.

Biden had returned from Camp David conscionable hours earlier his quality successful the East Room, cutting abbreviated a week of scheduled abrogation amid rising unit to respond publically to a diplomatic, humanitarian and governmental situation aft Afghanistan fell Sunday into Taliban hands.

Biden began his remarks by emphasizing his accordant presumption that the Afghanistan struggle had morphed from a counterterrorism ngo successful the aftermath of 9/11 into a federation gathering workout that was draining U.S. resources. He implicitly rebuked the American generals who convinced his predecessors to grow the warfare effort, often with rosy and mendacious promises.

“I americium present the 4th American president to preside implicit a warfare successful Afghanistan,” Biden said. “I volition not walk this work connected to a 5th president. I volition not mislead the American radical by claiming conscionable a small much clip successful Afghanistan volition marque each the difference.”

Until stepping disconnected Marine One successful Washington, D.C., conscionable aft 10 a.m. (Pacific), Biden had remained retired of nationalist view, relying connected apical aides to look connected the web greeting shows to support what adjacent governmental allies are describing arsenic the administration’s disastrous pullout from the country.

Just a period aft Biden told reporters it was “unlikely” the Taliban would overtake the country, nationalist information advisor Jake Sullivan acknowledged it had done conscionable that.

“The velocity with which cities fell was overmuch greater than anyone anticipated,” Sullivan said connected NBC’s “Today” show, adjacent arsenic helium enactment the onus connected Afghans to support their ain state aft 20 years of American involvement.

“Despite the information that we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars to springiness the champion equipment, the champion grooming and the champion capableness to the Afghan nationalist information forces, we could not springiness them the will,” helium continued. “And they yet decided they would not combat for Kabul and they would not combat for the state … that opened the doorway for the Taliban to travel into Kabul precise rapidly.”

On Biden’s instrumentality to Washington, the White House informed reporters that he’d been briefed by elder subject and nationalist information officials earlier successful the time connected the concern successful Afghanistan.

Biden’s comparative invisibility during a large situation has drawn crisp disapproval from Republicans and adjacent galore Democrats, who person called connected the medication to bash much to reassure the nationalist and to travel done connected Biden’s committedness to assistance the Afghans who aided the U.S. effort.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), an Iraq combat veteran, said calling Afghanistan’s autumn “anything abbreviated of a catastrophe would beryllium dishonest” and urged the White House to expedite the evacuation of susceptible Afghans. “I’ve person been calling connected the medication to evacuate our allies instantly — not hold for paperwork, for shaky agreements with 3rd countries, oregon for clip to marque it look much ‘orderly.’”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the seat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said his sheet would analyse wherefore “why we weren’t amended prepared for a worst-case scenario,” adding that the U.S. owes answers “to the American radical and to each those who served and sacrificed truthful much.”

Several Republicans, portion acknowledging the relation the Trump medication played successful signing an statement with the Taliban past twelvemonth to statesman the process of withdrawing U.S. forces, seized connected the accidental to blister Biden, who has been comparatively impervious to their partisan attacks.

“While President Joe Biden cowers astatine Camp David, the Taliban are humiliating America,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who disagreed with Biden’s determination to extremity the war. “The retreat from Afghanistan is our worst foreign-policy catastrophe successful a generation.”

This disaster, whether lawmakers admit it oregon not, has galore fathers. Three presidents continued, and astatine times, expanded the war, which outgo the U.S. $2.6 trillion and the lives of much than 2,400 servicemen and women; hundreds of lawmakers voted to authorize it. Biden’s determination to extremity it, based connected heavy idiosyncratic condemnation and the public’s waning committedness to Afghanistan, besides followed a timeline his predecessor enactment successful place.

President Trump’s medication signed the 2020 statement with the Taliban to retreat U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. The statement besides allowed the merchandise of 500 prisoners, galore with ties to panic groups similar ISIS and Al Qaeda. His determination not to impact the country’s leaders successful negotiations demoralized and delegitimized the now-toppled Afghan government.

But the erstwhile president, who criticized Biden earlier this twelvemonth for not sticking to his earlier withdrawal timeline, issued a fig of statements Tuesday attacking his successor’s “incompetence” and claiming that helium would person done a amended occupation of evacuating Afghan civilians to safety.

The 6,000 U.S. forces Biden deployed backmost to Kabul implicit the play for a rescue mission, according to the State Department and the Pentagon, were chiefly acrophobic with the evacuation of American citizens and embassy personnel, stranding astatine slightest for the infinitesimal the tens of thousands of susceptible Afghans who served alongside U.S. forces, those Biden promised would not beryllium near behind. The chaos astatine the airdrome Monday led the Pentagon to deploy an further 1,000 troops connected Monday, bringing the full cognition to 7,000.

On Sunday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the Taliban occupied the statesmanlike palace, culminating its lightning takeover of the nation.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. would springiness refuge to 30,000 susceptible Afghans, though airlifting them to information — thing advocates person been seeking for months — is lone starting to ramp up.

In interviews implicit the weekend, elder medication officials said the swift illness of Afghan forces — aft 2 decades of aggravated enactment from the U.S. authorities — affirmed Biden’s content that much clip and resources would not person been good spent successful Afghanistan.

But they struggled to explicate what they acknowledged was a botched pullout, which has led to the kinds of chaotic, heart-wrenching scenes Americans retrieve good from Vietnam and that Biden himself said were unlikely.

“There’s going to beryllium nary condition wherever you spot radical being lifted disconnected the extortion of an embassy of the U.S. successful Afghanistan,” Biden told reporters past month. On Sunday, however, U.S. helicopters were photographed swooping into the U.S. Embassy successful Kabul to rescue diplomats and ferry them to the city’s planetary airdrome for evacuation.

On Monday, portion Biden remained retired of presumption astatine Camp David, Americans awoke to stunning video images of hopeless Afghans moving alongside and clinging to a monolithic C-17 craft arsenic it rumbled down the airport’s tarmac earlier taking off. The chaos astatine Kabul’s airdrome could jeopardize the rescue cognition if U.S. forces are incapable to amended power the crowds.

Biden, who aides said would code the concern successful the coming days, was seen Sunday lone successful a photograph tweeted retired by the White House that showed him sitting unsocial astatine a agelong league table, participating successful a teleconference with elder medication officials.

Biden was astatine Camp David implicit the play due to the fact that helium rearranged a week of planned abrogation past week to instrumentality to the White House to instrumentality a triumph thigh aft the Senate voted to walk his infrastructure plan.

This communicative primitively appeared successful Los Angeles Times.

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