“Withdrawing our forces was the right decision; we could not fight if the Afghan forces were not ready to do so themselves.” The day after the Taliban took Kabul, the US president spoke from the White House on Monday, August 16, attempting to justify the American withdrawal from the country.
“After 20 years, I have reluctantly learned that there is never a good time to withdraw American forces,” the US president said in a highly anticipated address to the nation, due to the presidential silence during the historic weekend.
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Truly shaken for the first time since his election, Mr. Biden has repeatedly defended his decision to withdraw the last American soldiers from Afghanistan by August 31 at the latest, entrusting the fate of the country to an Afghan government and soldiers, now in full retreat.
“There was no good time for this withdrawal; we were realistic about the risk,” he asserted. “Our mission in Afghanistan was never intended to build a nation. It was never intended to create a centralized, unified democracy,” he insisted, specifying that the sole objective “remains today and has always been to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil.”
“Things have moved much faster than we anticipated.”
Faced with the disastrous images of chaos at Kabul airport and Taliban patrolling the streets of the Afghan capital, the US president acknowledged that “things have moved much faster than we anticipated,” speaking of a “collapse of the Afghan army.”
“We gave them every option to determine their own future,” he asserted, adding that “American forces cannot, and should not, fight a war and die in a war when Afghan forces lack the will to fight for themselves.” He further emphasized that America’s adversaries on the international stage, China and Russia foremost among them, would have “loved” for the Americans to remain bogged down in Afghanistan.
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Faced with the prevailing chaos, the White House occupant also threatened the Taliban with reprisals on Monday should they disrupt the ongoing evacuation operations at Kabul airport. In the event of an attack, the response will be “swift and powerful,” Mr. Biden declared, promising to defend American citizens with “devastating use of force if necessary.” The United States will continue its commitment to the “women and girls” of Afghanistan, Joe Biden also pledged on Monday, describing the scenes in Afghanistan as “heartbreaking.”
In his last public address on Afghanistan on Tuesday, Joe Biden had already defended his decision. On August 10, he said he “did not regret” the American withdrawal from the country. The Afghans “must have the will to fight” and “must fight for themselves, for their nation,” he added. “We have spent over $1 trillion in twenty years, trained and equipped (…) more than 300,000 Afghan soldiers,” he argued.
Wave of criticism
All American media outlets, including those that had welcomed his election with relief, are talking about a “disaster,” like CNN, or a Joe Biden “on the defensive,” like the Washington Post. “Whether one finds it fair or unfair, history will remember Joe Biden as the one who presided over the humiliating conclusion of the American experiment in Afghanistan” after twenty years of war, the New York Times asserted on Monday.
Faced with this unprecedented wave of criticism since the election, Joe Biden’s White House, this well-oiled machine, seemed paralyzed in recent days. On Thursday, and then again on Friday, while the Taliban were seizing control of Afghanistan with astonishing speed, the White House’s priority remained promoting the “Biden plan,” intended to rebuild the American economy on a fairer foundation, through massive spending. And on Saturday, in a statement, Joe Biden announced an increase to some 5,000 troops in Kabul to secure the evacuation of civilians.
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But his rather controlled presidency, committed to economic and social reforms, has indeed just faltered. The Republican opposition has seized the opportunity, faced with the humiliation of the Afghan army, of which the Americans were so proud, and the confusion surrounding the evacuation operation.
Until now, the conservative camp was quite embarrassed by the withdrawal decided by Donald Trump, and perceived favorably by a public opinion weary of the conflict in Afghanistan.
The former Republican president was under no illusions, despite having set an even tighter timetable than Joe Biden, having set the deadline for May 1, 2021. “It’s time for the discredited Joe Biden to resign for allowing what happened in Afghanistan,” Donald Trump demanded in a statement Sunday, determined to place the blame for the Afghan military debacle solely on his successor. AFP
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