{"id":20973,"date":"2021-07-08T20:09:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T20:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/07\/08\/biden-defends-afghanistan-pullout-as-taliban-gains-ground\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:56:30","slug":"biden-defends-afghanistan-pullout-as-taliban-gains-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/07\/08\/biden-defends-afghanistan-pullout-as-taliban-gains-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden defends Afghanistan pullout as Taliban gains ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the military mission in Afghanistan will end Aug. 31, saying the rapid exit protects U.S. troops from attacks by the Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden faces questions about whether the hasty military exodus<\/a> by his country and its NATO allies leaves Afghanistan vulnerable to the Taliban, who have made advances in many northern districts. But Biden argued the war couldn\u2019t be resolved my military means and that the Afghan people must decide their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome,\u201d Biden said, answering questions from reporters at the White House. The session followed his first formal address since the near-complete pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo nation has ever unified Afghanistan. Empires have gone there and not done it,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Biden said there was no \u201cmission accomplished\u201d moment, he argued the U.S. achieved its main goal of denying terrorists a haven in Afghanistan. Twenty years after the U.S. and other Western countries sent troops to Afghanistan, it was no longer worth the cost in lives and money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said the pace of the withdrawal was about protecting troops \u2015 \u201cSpeed is safety\u201d \u2015 and that the drawdown\u2019s been managed such that no U.S. or allied forces have been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur military commanders advised me that once I made the decision and the war, we needed to move swiftly to conduct the main elements of the drawdown,\u201d Biden said, adding: \u201cConducting our drawdown differently would have certainly come with increased risk of safety to our personnel, and to me, those risks were unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. military and humanitarian assistance would continue, he said, but counter terror assets would be refocused on Africa and other areas in the Mideast that he said present greater threats. After the U.S. and its allies trained and equipped some 300,000 Afghan forces, it was their time to defend their nation, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said Kabul falling to the Taliban would not be an acceptable outcome. But he also pushed back against the notion that such a scenario was certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo I trust the Taliban? No,\u201d Biden said. \u201cBut I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterward, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters that U.S. aid would continue and include an added three A-29 Super Tucano aircraft, nearly 40 refurbished UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and overhauls of MI-17 helicopters, as well as logistics and maintenance assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. is also working to expand its already \u201crobust over-the-horizon capability\u201d to support the Afghan government after the pullout, Kirby said, pointing to a carrier strike group in the region and additional military facilities throughout the Middle East. The goal is to build more options and emplace U.S. assets more closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, neither Kirby nor the president provided details about which neighboring countries would agree to host American assets over the long-term, or the status of those talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMake no mistake: Our military and intelligence leaders are confident they have the capabilities to protect the homeland and our interests from any terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan,\u201d Biden said, adding the over-the-horizon capability would \u201callow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on any direct threats on the United States in the region and act quickly and decisively if needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Afghan security forces keep watch after the American military left Bagram air base, in Parwan province north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, July 5, 2021. The U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years, winding up its “forever war,” in the night, without notifying the new Afghan commander until more than two hours after they slipped away. (AP Photo\/Rahmat Gul)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More than 2,400 U.S. troops have died and more than 20,000 have been wounded wounded in support of the war since 2001, according to the Defense Department. It\u2019s estimated that over 3,800 U.S. private security contractors have been killed. The suffering has been even greater for Afghanistan with estimates showing more than 66,000 Afghan troops killed and more than 2.7 million forced to flee their homes \u2014 mostly to Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden announced in April that the last 2,500 to 3,500 U.S. soldiers and 7,000 allied NATO soldiers would depart Afghanistan. Last month, the Pentagon said 650 troops would remain<\/a> to protect the sprawling U.S. embassy in Kabul and to operate a counter-artillery system at the Kabul airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday the U.S. military said 90 percent of American troops and equipment had already left the country, with the drawdown set to finish by late August. Last week, U.S. officials vacated the country\u2019s biggest airfield, Bagram Air Base, the epicenter of the war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks on America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirby acknowledged the Taliban had taken dozens of district centers and it\u2019s expected to threaten provincial centers as well. Kirby stressed, however, that the U.S. is not seeing the same level of threat it faced from Afghanistan before 9\/11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that there aren\u2019t still al Qaeda operatives or cells in Afghanistan, I\u2019m not saying that there aren\u2019t. But they are nothing like the organization they were on 9\/11, 20 years ago,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president has faced criticism from some Republicans, but also a number of newspaper editorial boards, for pulling out of Afghanistan, even though President Donald Trump made the 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. forces by May 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Washington Post editorial<\/a> last week said Biden ought to have reconsidered the swift withdrawal, citing the crumbling Afghan government and its forces. It called him \u201ccold to the country\u2019s plight,\u201d particularly as he said last month that Afghans would have to \u201cdecide their future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat future is likely to be bleak, if current trends continue. As U.S. advisers and air support melt away, Afghan army units are being wiped out by the Taliban, or are surrendering without a fight,\u201d the editorial reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said the administration is working with Congress<\/a> to make it easier for thousands of Afghans who worked for the American military or NATO, and their families, to relocate to the U.S. Biden said the U.S. would be conducting flights for Afghan allies this month before the U.S. military mission concludes, housing some in third-party countries temporarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said the law doesn\u2019t allow for the visa applicants to wait in the U.S. and that he was working with lawmakers for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said that since he took office, some 2,500 Afghans have been offered visas, though fewer than half have decided to leave Afghanistan so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking afterward, Kirby said it\u2019s unclear as yet which countries overseas would host the evacuees. The process, led by the State Department, is taking a global look at U.S. and partner facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story contains information from the Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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