Biden speech: President defends US exit from Afghanistan, pledging ‘no deadline’ to evacuate Americans
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Your support makes all the difference.In an address to the nation, President Joe Biden recognised the end of a “forever war” in Afghanistan after the last American troops departed from Kabul on Monday night, marking the beginning of the end of the nation’s longest war.
He defended the evacuation effort, in which thousands of people were lifted out of Kabul in recent weeks, as an “extraordinary success” due to the “incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals.”
The end of the nation’s longest war – in which nearly 50,000 Afghan civilians, 2,500 US service members, and thousands of Afghan military, police and Taliban fighters were killed – included the deaths of at least 13 US service members and an estimated 170 Afghan civilians after a terror attack claimed by Isis-K.
The president said he does not believe mass evacuations from Kabul should have started sooner, arguing that any announcement prior to an approaching withdrawal date could have sparked a “rush to the airport.”
“I take responsibility for the decision,” he said.
He added: “Imagine if we began evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport, a break down in confidence and control of the government and still would have been very difficult and dangerous mission.”
“The bottom line is there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, threats we faced,” he said. “None.”
He also stressed that for Americans who remained beyond the 31 August withdrawal deadline, “there is no deadline.”
“We remain committed to get them out, if they want to come out,” he said.
At home, the president has approved federal disaster aid and dispatched emergency response in the wake of Hurricane Ida’s devastation across southeast Louisiana, where thousands of homes were damaged by the now-dissipated storm, leaving more than 1 million homes without power.
The president pledged the federal government to “stand with you and the people of the Gulf as long as it takes for you to recover,” he said on Monday.
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Biden defends evacuation plan: ‘I take responsibility for the decision'
The president said he does not believe mass evacuations from Kabul should have started sooner, arguing that any announcement prior to an approaching withdrawal date could have sparked a “rush to the airport.”
“I take responsibility for the decision,” he said.
He added: “Imagine if we began evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport, a break down in confidence and control of the government and still would have been very difficult and dangerous mission.”
“The bottom line is there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, threats we faced,” he said. “None.”
Biden gives robust defence of his handling of Afghanistan exit in national address: ‘It was time to end this war’
President Joe Biden offered his strongest defence yet for his administration’s management of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan on Tuesday, hours after the last US planes left the country.
In a national address from the White House marking the end of the US occupation of Afghanistan, Mr Biden explained that he was not ready to let a “forever war” turn into a “forever exit”, while arguing that the US managed to extract most Americans from the country before the final flights departed.
“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” the president declared.
John Bowden reports from Washington DC:
Biden defends his handling of Afghanistan exit in national address
President battles criticism of Kabul evacuations’ management
Biden to Isis-K: ‘We are not done with you yet’
Biden has signalled US military focus in the aftermath of the occupation in Afghanistan will rely on remote strikes, announcing that the US “will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries.”
“We just don’t need to fight a ground war to do it,” he added. “To Isis-k, we aren’t done with you yet.”
The US will pursue a “tough, unforgiving, precise strategy” that attacks “where terror is today, not where it was two decades ago.”
Watch: White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks with reporters
Beyond Afghanistan, Biden announces end of efforts to ‘remake other countries’
US withdrawal from the occupation of Afghanistan “isn’t just about Afghanistan,” Biden said.
“It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries,” he said in his national address.
“We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “Moving on from that mindset and those kind of large-scale troop deployments will make us stronger and more effective and safer at home.”
Majority of Americans support troop withdrawal, though 42 per cent say Biden’s handling was ‘poor’
A survey performed in the days leading up to the final withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan found that a majority of Americans – 54 per cent – believe the decision to exit is the right one, while 42 per cent describe Biden’s handling of the mission as “poor.”
Only six per cent of respondents say the administration did an “excellent” job, according to the Pew Research survey, while roughly 50 per cent would describe the handling of US withdrawal as “good” or “only fair.”
Views on the administration’s efforts as well as Taliban threats also largely reflect party affiliation, unsurprisingly – 64 per cent of Republicans don’t support withdrawal, and 61 per cent believe the Taliban poses a security threat to the US, according to the poll.
Facebook says deleting account of slain soldier’s mother who criticised Joe Biden was a mistake
The mother of Kabul blast victim Kareem Nikoui has been unbanned from Instagram after the company said it had removed her account by accident.
Shana Chappell said her account was deleted after posting a tribute to her son followed by criticism of Joe Biden to Facebook, which owns Instagram. In a statement to The Independent, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the removal of her account but said it was a mistake.
“We express our deepest condolences to Ms Chappell and her family. Her tribute to her heroic son does not violate any of our policies,” the statement said. The Independent’s Justin Vallejo has more here.
Facebook deletes account of soldier’s mother who criticised Joe Biden by mistake
Shana Chappell is among several family members of the 13 troops killed in Afghanistan highly critical of the president
President attempts to articulate his ‘Biden doctrine’ as the Afghanistan war draws to a close
Midway through President Joe Biden’s speech announcing the end of the US military mission in Afghanistan, he appeared to outline a unitary “Biden doctrine” for US foreign policy as America ends its longest war.
“First, we must set missions with clear, achievable goals, not ones we’ll never reach,” he said. “We must stay clearly focused on the fundamental national security interests of the United States of America.”
Throughout Mr Biden’s speech, wherein he outlined the failures of the Afghan government before it fell to the Taliban and the shortcomings of his predecessor Donald Trump, the president continuously emphasised why longterm military commitments like the one in Afghanistan were not in America’s best interests.
The Independent’s Eric Garcia has more analysis here.
President attempts to outline the ‘Biden doctrine’ at the end of the Afghanistan War
‘It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries’, Biden says as the president attempts to outline his foreign policy approach
Read the full transcript of Biden’s remarks on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan War
This will be the one that goes in the history books.
On Tuesday, president Biden passionately defended his administration’s handling of the Afghanistan conflict, and sought more broadly to define what comes next for America in the Middle East after the conclusion of its longest modern war. Read the full speech here.
Full transcript of Biden’s remarks on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan
Following is the full speech by President Joe Biden to mark the end of the 20-year conflict
Most of 23 San Diego-area students trapped in Afghanistan are home, school district confirms
A group of eight San Diego families, including nearly two dozen school children, has largely been able to escape Afghanistan after being trapped in the country in the final days of the US withdrawal, school authorities have confirmed to The Independent.
Out of the eight families who were once stuck in Afghanistan, many of whom are dual nationals who were visiting family, seven have made it out, the Cajon Valley Union School District said on Tuesday afternoon.
Four families are back in the El Cajon area, two are in the US and flying home, and one is safely on their way to America.
One family, including three students, remains in the country.
Catch up on our previous coverage of the case here.
California students airlifted but more stranded in Afghanistan after summer trip
Fourteen San Diego students remain stuck in the country
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