U.S. President Joe Biden said On the 16th that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan was the right decision, while acknowledging that the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated faster than the U.S. side expected.
Biden spoke about the situation in Afghanistan after returning to the White House from the presidential resort of Camp David. He reiterated that the U.S. military has completed its counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan and that it is not in the U.S. interest to continue to maintain troops, adding that the previous U.S. administration’s withdrawal agreement with the Afghan Taliban last year left him with no choice.
Biden acknowledged that the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated faster than the U.S. expected, the reason is that the Afghan leader abandoned the country and lost the afghan government forces. He said the changes in the situation over the past week proved that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan was the right decision and that U.S. troops would not participate in a civil war that Afghans were reluctant to fight.
Biden also said the U.S. has made many mistakes in Afghanistan over the past two decades, a decision he acknowledged would be difficult and chaotic, but he would rather accept all the blame than pass on the blame for the war to the next president.
Pentagon spokesman Kirby said on the 16th, there are about 2,500 U. S. troops at Kabul airport in the Afghan capital to support the withdrawal of U. S. and allied personnel, the number of U. S. troops in the next few days will increase to about 6,000. Kirby also said that the same day in Kabul airport, armed men shot at the U. S. military, the U. S. military has killed two militants.
U.S. public opinion, experts and some Republican lawmakers have been attacking the Biden administration’s withdrawal policy for days. According to U.S. media reports, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the White House on the 15th, some of them waving “America betrayed us” signs.
The U.S. government signed an agreement with the Taliban last February promising to withdraw from Afghanistan by May. Biden announced in April that U.S. troops in Afghanistan would begin withdrawing by May 1 and completely by September 11. Biden added in July that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan would end on August 31.
Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has intensified as the U.S. military has accelerated its withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed to have captured the vast majority of the country’s 34 provincial cities. Taliban militants entered and took control of Kabul on the 15th, Afghan President Asif Ghani said the same day that he had left Afghanistan.
