US President Joe Biden says, he stands squarely behind his decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan

US President Joe Biden has said that he stands squarely behind his decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan and that the government’s collapse was quicker than anticipated. The statement comes in the wake of criticism of the US President over the Taliban’s lightning conquest of the war-torn country.

On Sunday, the Taliban declared victory after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and his government collapsed.

In his televised address to the nation from the White House last night, President Biden said, he was faced with a choice between sticking to a previously negotiated agreement to withdraw US troops this year or sending thousands more service members back into Afghanistan for the third decade of war. 

He said he will not repeat mistakes of the past and did not regret his decision to proceed with the withdrawal. He added that after 20 years, he has learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.

President Biden said the decision to leave Afghanistan is the right one for America. He said, American



troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves. The US President said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been about nation-building. Reiterating that no amount of force can guarantee a united Afghanistan, Mr Biden said, Afghan political leadership failed to come together to negotiate the future of their country.

This was President Biden’s first address on Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country.

Earlier in the day, the United States suspended its evacuation from Kabul after scenes of panic at the capital’s airport turned deadly. Thousands of civilians desperate to flee the country had thronged the tarmac.

The militants’ return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition’s presence in the country. Kabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking the world.