I Stand Behind The Decision To Withdraw From Afganistan — Biden

As critics went to town calling him weak, President Joe Biden on
Monday said he stood by his administration’s decision to continue
with the U.S. military drawdown in Afghanistan. According to a
report by Lauren Egan of nbcnews.com, he blamed the U.S.-backed
Afghan government and military for allowing the Taliban to take
over.

“Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country; the
Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,”
Biden said. “If anything, the developments of the past week
reinforce that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now
was the right decision.”

Speaking to the American public from the White House, Biden,
according to nbc, said he stood firmly by his decision and argued
that he was faced with a choice to either followthrough with the
drawdown or escalate the conflict into its third decade and
ultimately sacrifice more American lives.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden said. “After 20
years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time
to withdraw U.S. forces. That’s why we’re still there.”

The report has it further: “The Taliban seized control of
Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday following President Ashraf Ghan’s
departure from the country, bringing an abrupt end to the 20-year
U.S. effort to restructure the Afghan government and its
military.

Within hours of the Taliban takeover, chaos erupted at Kabul’s
international airport as desperate Afghans raced to flee the
country. A harrowing video captured Monday showed Afghans storming
the military side of the airport and clinging to a U.S. Air Force
plane as it attempted to move down the tarmac. In the video, some
people appear to fall to their death as the aircraft takes off.

The White House appeared to be caught off-guard by the Taliban’s
rapid rise. Over the weekend, the U.S. was forced to send
additional troops Afghanistan to help with evacuations and the U.S.
embassy, which the State Department had insisted Thursday would
remain open, had been fully evacuated by Sunday evening.

“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had
anticipated,” Biden said Monday, insisting that his administration
was prepared for all scenarios but that the Afghan government and
military were unwilling to defend their own country.

“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,” he said, arguing that if their military was unable to
mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, a few more years of
U.S. troops on the ground would not have made any difference.

As the Taliban took hold of the country, Democrats on Capitol
Hill and former Obama administration officials joined Republicans
in publicly criticizing Biden’s handling of the situation. While
most agreed with the decision to remove troops, they attacked
Biden’s failure to help the thousands of Afghans who assisted U.S.
forces exit the country before the Taliban took over, and the
scramble to evacuate Americans from the country.

“This is a crisis of untold proportions,” said Rep. Jackie
Speier, D-Calif., who had urged Biden to make an address to the
nation. “This is an intelligence failure.”

Ryan Crocker, who was ambassador to Afghanistan in the Obama
administration, said the Biden administration had “a total lack of
coordinated, post-withdrawal planning,” and that the predicament
was a “self-inflicted wound.”
Former President Donald Trump negotiated a deal while in office
with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. military personnel by May 1 of
this year. After he was inaugurated, Biden said the withdrawal
would be completed by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11th
terrorist attacks.

In July, Biden insisted that a Taliban takeover was not
inevitable and said that the Afghan military was well equipped and
trained to keep the Taliban at bay. “I trust the capacity of the
Afghan military,” Biden said at the time.

As U.S. forces began to withdraw earlier this year, the Taliban,
facing little resistance from the U.S.-trained Afghan military,
rapidly expanded their control, ultimately taking Kabul in a few
weeks.”

As critics went to town calling him weak, President Joe Biden on
Monday said he stood by his administration’s decision to continue
with the U.S. military drawdown in Afghanistan. According to a
report by Lauren Egan of nbcnews.com, he blamed the U.S.-backed
Afghan government and military for allowing the Taliban to take
over.

“Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country; the
Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,”
Biden said. “If anything, the developments of the past week
reinforce that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now
was the right decision.”

Speaking to the American public from the White House, Biden,
according to nbc, said he stood firmly by his decision and argued
that he was faced with a choice to either followthrough with the
drawdown or escalate the conflict into its third decade and
ultimately sacrifice more American lives.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden said. “After 20
years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time
to withdraw U.S. forces. That’s why we’re still there.”

The report has it further: “The Taliban seized control of
Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday following President Ashraf Ghan’s
departure from the country, bringing an abrupt end to the 20-year
U.S. effort to restructure the Afghan government and its
military.

Within hours of the Taliban takeover, chaos erupted at Kabul’s
international airport as desperate Afghans raced to flee the
country. A harrowing video captured Monday showed Afghans storming
the military side of the airport and clinging to a U.S. Air Force
plane as it attempted to move down the tarmac. In the video, some
people appear to fall to their death as the aircraft takes off.

The White House appeared to be caught off-guard by the Taliban’s
rapid rise. Over the weekend, the U.S. was forced to send
additional troops Afghanistan to help with evacuations and the U.S.
embassy, which the State Department had insisted Thursday would
remain open, had been fully evacuated by Sunday evening.

“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had
anticipated,” Biden said Monday, insisting that his administration
was prepared for all scenarios but that the Afghan government and
military were unwilling to defend their own country.

“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,” he said, arguing that if their military was unable to
mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, a few more years of
U.S. troops on the ground would not have made any difference.

As the Taliban took hold of the country, Democrats on Capitol
Hill and former Obama administration officials joined Republicans
in publicly criticizing Biden’s handling of the situation. While
most agreed with the decision to remove troops, they attacked
Biden’s failure to help the thousands of Afghans who assisted U.S.
forces exit the country before the Taliban took over, and the
scramble to evacuate Americans from the country.

“This is a crisis of untold proportions,” said Rep. Jackie
Speier, D-Calif., who had urged Biden to make an address to the
nation. “This is an intelligence failure.”

Ryan Crocker, who was ambassador to Afghanistan in the Obama
administration, said the Biden administration had “a total lack of
coordinated, post-withdrawal planning,” and that the predicament
was a “self-inflicted wound.”
Former President Donald Trump negotiated a deal while in office
with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. military personnel by May 1 of
this year. After he was inaugurated, Biden said the withdrawal
would be completed by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11th
terrorist attacks.

In July, Biden insisted that a Taliban takeover was not
inevitable and said that the Afghan military was well equipped and
trained to keep the Taliban at bay. “I trust the capacity of the
Afghan military,” Biden said at the time.

As U.S. forces began to withdraw earlier this year, the Taliban,
facing little resistance from the U.S.-trained Afghan military,
rapidly expanded their control, ultimately taking Kabul in a few
weeks.”