“It was time to end this war”
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening said he would “go after terror wherever it is” following the messy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the US exit from a failed 20-year war.
The country’s swift fall into the hands of the Taliban took onlookers and Afghans by surprise and sent thousands fleeing. Following US withdrawal, the Taliban seized control of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, completing the takeover of much of the country.
What did Biden say on the war?
Joe Biden said that “the war in Afghanistan is now over” after making a commitment with the American people to end it.
He said $300 million (€254 million) was spent every day in Afghanistan and it was time to leave.
“I refused to open another decade of war in Afghanistan,” he said, before adding that 800,000 Americans had served in the country and 2,461 had died, including 13 “heroes” last week.
“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not going to extend a forever exit,” Biden said, having faced criticism from allies abroad and rivals at home over the nature of the exit, as well as the Taliban’s rapid return to power.
Biden said the US had “succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade.
“It was time to end this war,” he reiterated.
What did he say on the evacuation?
The US president spoke glowingly about the evacuation, saying it was “one of the biggest airlifts in history. No nation has ever done anything like it.”
He added that “the assumption that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces we had trained over the past two decades … would be able to hold a period of time … turned out not to be accurate.”
But Biden said he had “instructed our national security team to prepare for any eventuality, even that one.”
In the end he said 90% of Americans who wanted to leave were airlifted, along with thousands of Afghan diplomats and support staff. More would be brought out as soon as the airport was opened once again by the Taliban.
He said that “with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety, that number is more than double what most experts saw as possible.”