United States President, Joe Biden insists that he has honoured his commitment to end the war in Afghanistan.
Gatekeepers News reports that the American President Tuesday’s comment comes a day after the last American U.S military planes departed Afghanistan, officially ending the country’s 20-year war in the country.
“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over,” Biden said at the White House. “I’m the fourth president who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for president, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today I’ve honoured that commitment.”
The American President defended the US withdrawal which was rocked by the Taliban’s unexpectedly swift takeover of Afghanistan’s capital, saying the real choice in Afghanistan was “between leaving and escalating”.
“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said, setting aside arguments that leaving some troops in the country was a feasible way to keep the Taliban at bay.
Biden further vowed to continue the mission to help Americans and many more Afghan allies leave the country but stressed that America’s interest in Afghanistan was over.
He maintained that the US “no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan” and that the US’ withdrawal signalled “ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.”
Biden painted the withdrawal as an “extraordinary success,” but admitted that the US was caught off-guard by the quick collapse of the Afghan army.
“This is the way the mission was designed. It was designed to operate under severe stress and attack, and that’s what it did,” Biden said.
Biden paid tribute to the thirteen US service members who were killed in a terrorist attack outside Kabul airport last week and hailed their comrades who finished the mission.
“For weeks they risked their lives to get American citizens, Afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners and others onboard planes and out of the country. And they did it facing the crush of enormous crowds seeking to leave the country,” Biden said.
