‘Frankly overdue’: Biden pushes ahead with Afghanistan withdrawal

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‘Frankly overdue’: Biden pushes ahead with Afghanistan withdrawal

By Matthew Knott

Washington: US President Joe Biden has vigorously defended his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan despite fears the departure would lead to a surge of violence and a possible Taliban takeover of the country.

Biden announced at a White House briefing that the US military mission in Afghanistan would officially conclude on August 31, slightly earlier than his previous deadline of September 11.

Taliban forces in Afghanistan have been gaining ground rapidly in recent weeks, leading critics to say the Biden administration is rushing its withdrawal and risking a humanitarian disaster, especially for Afghan women and girls.

Biden, who was animated and at times fiery during the press conference, said American troops could not remain there indefinitely.

“We’re ending America’s longest war,” he said.

“I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.”

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Adding that he had long been a sceptic of America’s prolonged presence in the country, Biden said: “This is the right decision and, quite frankly, overdue.”

Biden said the US had achieved its two primary goals in Afghanistan: to kill September 11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden and to remove Al-Qaeda’s capacity to use the country as a base to launch attacks on America.

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He stressed the US had not gone into Afghanistan to “nation-build” or to turn the country into a functioning democracy.

“No nation has ever unified Afghanistan,” Biden said. “Empires have gone there and not done it.”

He continued: “It’s up to the people of Afghanistan to decide on what government they want, not us to impose the government on them.”

Biden said he did not believe it was inevitable that the Taliban, an extremist Islamic group, would again seize control of the country because the Afghan army was well-equipped and well-trained.

The President addressed head-on the arguments of those who say the US is leaving too soon.

Those calling for a six to 12-month extension were ignoring the lessons of the past 20 years. Such extensions, Biden said, had repeatedly proven not to be a solution but a “recipe to remain there indefinitely”.

He comes to the issue with a long history, having opposed the Obama administration’s 2009 troop surge to Afghanistan while serving as vice-president.

He said his capacity to manoeuvre was limited by the fact the Trump administration struck a deal with the Taliban to leave the country by May.

Biden said had he announced a substantial extension, US troops would have come under assault from Taliban fighters and casualties would have resulted.

As for those calling on the US to remain indefinitely, Biden asked: “How many thousands more American daughters and sons are you willing to risk?

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“How long would you have them stay? Already, we have members of our military whose parents fought in Afghanistan 20 years ago. Would you send their children?”

A Quinnipiac University poll in late May found that 62 per cent of American adults approved of the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan while 29 per cent disapproved.

Biden also pledged to evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters who had worked alongside American troops during the war. He said that 2500 special immigrant visas had been issued to allow Afghans into the United States, but only half had so far decided to come.

The speed with which the Taliban is advancing has stunned US officials. In the past week, the group has overrun areas bordering five countries — Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and Pakistan — as foreign forces end their two-decade intervention and the domestic security situation deteriorates.

Pitched battles between Taliban fighters and Afghan government forces were also under way on the Uzbekistan border.

Two senior security officials said on condition of anonymity that the Islam Qala border crossing with Iran, located in Herat province, had fallen to the Taliban and that Afghan security and customs officials had fled across the border.

Al-Alalam TV, Iran’s official Arabic language service, also reported that Afghan soldiers had entered Iranian territory.

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US military commanders are now warning of a possible civil war that would bathe the troubled country in new rounds of bloodshed that would in turn reverberate throughout the region. Hundreds of Afghan soldiers have fled the country in the face of the Taliban push.

“If we don’t provide them [Afghan military forces] some support, they certainly will collapse,” US Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, testified to a Senate committee in April. “I think everyone is concerned that should ... a civil war ensue, there’s the possibility of mass refugee movement that could affect all forms of the nations around Afghanistan.”

Former prime minister John Howard, who committed Australia to the mission in Afghanistan, said that Australia should give similar visas to those who had helped Australian troops.

“If a group of people gave help to Australians, such that their lives and that of those immediately around them are in danger, we have a moral obligation to help them,” he told SBS.

Speaking in the UK House of Commons, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there could “never be a perfect moment” to fully withdraw from Afghanistan.

“This was never intended at any stage to be an open-ended commitment or engagement by UK armed services in Afghanistan, there was no intention for us to remain there forever,” he said.

with Latika Bourke, Reuters, Los Angeles Times

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