President Joe Biden addressed the nation Tuesday about what comes next after a 20-year war in Afghanistan and responded to criticisms of the U.S.-led evacuations from the main airport in Kabul.
The evacuations airlifted more than 120,000 people but also left more than 100 Americans behind, leading a number of Republicans to slam the president's management of the operation. Biden, however, called the evacuations an "extraordinary success."
“That number is more than double what most experts thought was possible," he added.
According to the president between 100 and 200 Americans who wished to evacuate remain in Afghanistan. “For those remaining Americans, there is no deadline,” he said.
Thousands of troops were on the ground protecting airlifts after the Taliban quickly took control of the country on Aug. 17. During the evacuations, an Aug. 26 suicide bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and some 169 Afghans, according to the Associated Press.
Biden said of the service members killed in the bombing, “We owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never repay.” Two of the Americans killed were Marines from Riverside County.
Despite the chaos of the evacuations, Biden said there was no easier path.
“There is no evacuation from the end of a war,” he said. Even if the U.S. had started evacuations earlier, “There still would have been a rush to the airport,” said Biden. “It still would have been a very difficult and dangerous mission.”
The president again stressed that following through on the troop withdrawal agreed to by former President Donald Trump was the right decision. To stay in Afghanistan would have meant committing thousands of additional troops and going back to war, according to Biden.
“That was the choice, the real choice, between leaving or escalating,” he said.
Shortly after American forces’ final departure from the country on Tuesday, the Taliban’s spokesperson declared victory, according to the New York Times.
The paper reported that Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman, congratulated Afghans, saying, “This victory belongs to us all.”
During the occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S. spent $83 billion to train and equip the Afghan army.
The president said at the Tuesday press conference that a war that cost $300 million dollars a day for two decades was too high a cost for the U.S. to continue.
Related
