Afghanistan (Washington Insider Magazine) -In a speech on Aug. 16, U.S. President Joe Biden addressed the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, as the Taliban ascended to power in the span of a week following a U.S. military withdrawal. Biden said that although the situation unfolded faster than expected, he stands “squarely behind his decision.”
The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, spanning 20 years and four presidents, leading to the death of more than 2,400 U.S. service members. Biden emphasized his commitment to “not pass this responsibility onto a fifth president.”
He began his speech by reiterating his view of the U.S.’s intention in Afghanistan, stressing that the objective had not been nation building or “creating a unified, centralized democracy,” but instead to prevent a terrorist attack on the U.S. by ensuring al-Qaeda did not solidify a base in Afghanistan.
Criticizing Afghan leadership and military troops on their ability to fight the Taliban without U.S. assistance, he said he “cannot and will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country’s civil war.”
He conceded that the Taliban takeover happened “more quickly than we anticipated,” but said that no amount of continued U.S. military presence would make a difference in the war.
He added: “American troops cannot and should not be fighting and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”
Regarding the $2 trillion that the U.S. had spent over the past 20 years on developing the war-torn country, including training and equipping a military of more than 300,000, he said: “We gave them every tool they could need.”
Biden continued: “We paid their salaries, we provided for the maintenances of their air force … we gave them every chance to determine their own future, what we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future.”
Regarding the country’s president who fled the country to an undisclosed location, the U.S. president asserted that Ghani has “insisted the Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong, so I’m left again to ask of those who wanted us to stay, how many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil wars when Afghan troops will not.
During his address to the nation, Biden said, “I’m clear on my answer, I will not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past.”
Biden said his priority going forward is evacuating American citizens and allies from the country, and that any inhibition of that mission will be met with “devastating force.”
The State Department and the Pentagon have held press conferences on details of current efforts to evacuate and relocate citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants (SIVs), and persons at risk in the country, including interpreters who helped the U.S. government.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his counterparts from Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, France, Norway, the UK, and NATO about the situation.
According to Price, all remaining U.S. direct hire personal, including the ambassador, have relocated to the Kabul airport that is controlled by U.S. military personnel.
“The situation will continue to remain fluid, in the coming hours and likely in the coming days, nevertheless we are operating on multiple fronts and around the clock to protect our people, those who have worked side-by-side with the United States over the years, and other vulnerable Afghans,” Price said.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, Joint Staff Director of Current Operations, said that over 700 SIV applicants have left Afghanistan, putting the total number of SIV applicants that left the country in recent weeks at over 2,000. He also said the U.S. military is currently assisting the State Department in moving over 700 personnel from the embassy, who he said are safe and preparing to depart.
When asked if the scenes unfolding in Kabul, particularly of panic at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, were a failure of intelligence, Taylor declined to comment.
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesperson, contended with a reporter’s use of the term “failure” to describe the panic, and said that military drills were conducted in anticipation of the airport evacuation, but he said they could not have been “perfectly predictive.”
A full transcript of President Biden’s remarks, a transcript of the State Department press briefing and the Pentagon press briefing can be found online.
