Within 24 hours from The last U.S. military plane left Kabul, President Joe Biden defended himself in the case, saying it was “the right decision” to end the 20-year US war in Afghanistan.
Speaking in a loud voice from the White House on Tuesday, Biden said US troops were monitoring the airport in Afghanistan. deadline for departure August 31 it would expose them to security threats.
“Let me be clear: leaving August 31 does not happen because of a deadline. It was designed to save lives in America, ”he said.
Biden mentioned who was already there Donald Trump’s alliance and the Taliban who were determined to leave, but took responsibility for the final decision to expel all US troops from the country.
“I don’t want to continue this war forever, and I’m not raising the issue forever,” he said. “The idea to end the military transport program at Kabul airport was in line with the views expressed by my local and military advisers.”
Members of the U.S. Congress and Washington-based European organizations have urged the President to intensify his rescue efforts at the airport by the end of the month. But Taliban officials were warning of “results” if the US military did not leave completely as planned.
After that Group Meeting (G7) last week, European Council President Charles Michel said the European Union had reaffirmed in Washington “the need to protect the airport as much as possible to complete its operations” – a song that has been endorsed by many U.S. lawmakers, including several from the Biden Democratic Party.
“I have an idea that we will remain in the military as long as it is necessary to deport all US people and to fulfill our obligations to our Afghan counterparts,” said Adam Schiff, a Democrat who heads the House Intelligence Committee. , he said earlier this month.
The Taliban have seized Afghanistan in a blitz earlier this month, arriving in Kabul on August 15 as President Ashraf Ghani he fled the country and government agencies collapsed.
Almost immediately after The Pentagon has announced On Monday after the last U.S. plane left Afghanistan, Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy urged GOP troops in Congress to condemn Biden.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw, a veteran of the war that fought in Afghanistan, has criticized the authorities for handing over the country to the Taliban against Washington national security.
“He likes the statement” there will be no more endless wars, “he said.
On Tuesday, Biden said the departure from Afghanistan was appropriate in Washington as the US changes its foreign policy to focus on international competition with China and Russia.
“Nothing China or Russia would have had, it would have demanded more competition than the United States to be forced to a decade in Afghanistan,” he said.
‘Amazing success’
Biden also defended the nature of the reduction – despite the turmoil at the Kabul airport. He singing the rescue operation was “a huge success”, claiming that the US has flown more than 120,000 people into the country.
“We have completed one of the largest airplanes in history … This is more than double what most experts think is possible. No country, no country has ever done such a thing in history,” Biden said.
Alan Fisher of Al Jazeera, of Washington, DC before speaking with Biden, said photos from Kabul in the past two weeks were “extremely destructive” to the US President.
“Here was a group that many politicians … would describe as the world’s largest military organization, embarrassed by militants who have continued the war for 20 years,” Fisher said. “This is not a good day for the American psyche.”
But Fisher also cited a new Pew Research study showing that 54% of respondents would still like the idea of withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan. “And that’s the number that Joe Biden will consider,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, Afghan-American freedom fighter Lida Azim was warned that the withdrawal of US troops does not mean that the war is over.
“If the United States wants to end the war forever, it must tackle the vultures and pay for and help the Afghan people who have been abandoned by the United States,” Azim told a news conference.
Biden, however, made it clear in his statement that US troops would continue to work from the air in Afghanistan to act against “threats”.
“We will continue to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and in other countries,” the US President said. “We don’t need to fight a civil war to do this. We have what they say is the most possible, which means we can beat terrorists with goals without American shoes on the ground.”
On Sunday, a U.S. plane that the Pentagon claimed to be fighting Islamic State militants in the Khorasan region, ISKP (ISIS-K), killed Ten Afghan people, including several children, according to his brothers.