From Reuters:
“Biden says Afghans must
decide own future; U.S. to leave on Aug. 31”
President Joe Biden on Thursday
strongly defended his decision to pull U.S. military forces out of Afghanistan,
saying the Afghan people must decide their own future, rather than sacrificing
another generation of Americans in an unwinnable war. Speaking in the White
House East Room, Biden said the Afghan military has the ability to repel the
Taliban, whose major advances in recent weeks have raised fears the country
will slide into civil war.
Biden set a target date of Aug. 31
for the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, minus about 650 troops to provide
security for the U.S. embassy in Kabul. A long-time skeptic of the 20-year
military presence there, Biden said the United States had long ago achieved its
original rationale for invading the country in 2001: to root out al-Qaeda
militants and prevent another attack on the United States like the one launched
on Sept.11, 2001. The mastermind of that attack, Osama bin Laden, was killed by
a U.S. military team in 2011. "We achieved those objectives, that's why we
went. We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build. And it's the right and the
responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they
want to run their country," he said.
Biden called on countries in the
region to help bring about an elusive political settlement between the warring
parties. He said the Afghan government should seek a deal with the Taliban to
allow them to coexist peacefully. He said the "only way there's going to
be peace and security in Afghanistan is if they work out a modus vivendi with
the Taliban...And the likelihood there's going to be one unified government in
Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely." The speech
represented Biden's most extensive comments to date about the U.S. withdrawal
from Afghanistan under pressure from critics to give more explanation for his
decision to withdraw.
Biden said U.S. plans to move
thousands of Afghan interpreters out of the country in anticipation of the end
of the U.S. military mission in the country. They will be moved to third
countries and can apply for U.S. visas to enter the United States, he said.
Locations are still being worked out. Guam, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
are possible locations, a senior administration official said. The United
States last weekend abandoned Bagram air base, the longtime staging ground for
U.S. military operations in the country, effectively ending America's longest
war. The Pentagon says the withdrawal of U.S. forces is 90% complete. Washington
agreed to withdraw in a deal negotiated last year under Biden's Republican
predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden overruled military leaders who wanted to keep
a larger presence to assist Afghan security forces and prevent Afghanistan from
becoming a staging ground for extremist groups.
Biden's order in April to pull
out U.S. forces by Sept. 11 after 20 years of conflict has coincided with major
gains by the Islamist militant Taliban movement against overwhelmed Afghan
forces after peace talks sputtered. Taliban fighters seized control on Thursday
of a district in western Afghanistan that includes a major border crossing with
Iran, Afghan security officials said, as the Islamist insurgents continued
their rapid military advances around the country. In the last week, the Taliban
have overrun areas bordering five countries - Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
China and Pakistan. The commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, General Austin
Miller, warned last week that the country may be headed toward a civil war.
The U.S. intelligence community
believes the Afghan military is weak and that the Kabul government's prospects
for survival in the short term are not good, U.S. government sources familiar
with official assessments said. Biden's administration is also grappling with
its plan for expedited visas for Afghan people most at risk of being attacked
by the Taliban, including translators who worked with foreign forces. Rights
groups are pushing to add up to 2,000 vulnerable women to the list. Some
Republicans are criticizing Biden for the pullout, although Trump had brokered
an agreement with the Taliban to end American involvement in the war.
^ While it will be good to have
the majority of Americans back home from Afghanistan (minus 650 Soldiers) after
20 years of constant war it doesn’t mean Afghanistan won’t be a threat to the
region or the world once the Taliban and/or ISIS takes over. As long as the
world can contain the violence inside Afghanistan and it doesn’t cause a direct
threat to the West I don’t see the US or NATO going back into Afghanistan once
we leave – just like we didn’t in South Vietnam after 1973. ^
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