As the Taliban takes over Afghanistan following nearly 20 years of U.S. occupation, President Joe Biden says the group is “going through sort of an existential crisis,” but hasn’t really changed.
He explained to “Good Morning America” journalist George Stephanopoulos Thursday that the Taliban – a Sunni Islam organization formed in the 1990s after Soviet troops lefts Afghanistan, looking to enforce Sharia law – is at a crossroads.
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“Do they want to be recognized by the international community as a legitimate government?” asked Biden as he described the Taliban’s existential crisis. “I’m not sure they do.”
“They care about their beliefs more,” said Stephanopoulos.
“Well, they do,” said Biden. “They also care about whether they have food to eat,” and a functioning economy, the president added.
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U.S. troops were sent to the Middle Eastern country after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. There is a sense of déjà vu as the Taliban takes back control of Afghanistan so close to the anniversary of the tragedies.
“The Taliban are going to be ruling Afghanistan like they were,” said Stephanopoulos.
However, Biden said today’s Taliban might not be exactly the same as it was when plane hijackers targeted American landmarks two decades ago. For instance, he was surprised the group provided safe passage for Americans leaving the country as the took over this week.
The Taliban’s resurgence as leaders of Afghanistan occurred as the U.S. moved forward with plans to remove all troops from the country. Ashraf Ghani, the president of a now defunct U.S.-backed government fled and U.S.-trained troops backed down from a fight with the group.
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“I don’t think anybody anticipated that,” Biden told Good Morning America.
Even so, he said the U.S. was able to accomplish two major things in the country since 2001: taking out Osama Bin Laden and reducing the influence of Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization founded by Bin Laden that has been implicated in the Sept. 11 attacks. Now other countries in the Middle East, such as Syria, pose a greater risk of terrorist activity, he said.
Where the U.S. went wrong was attempting nation-building in Afghanistan, Biden added.
He said the U.S. will continue getting as many people out of the country as possible, including Afghan women. When the Taliban was last in power, women were not allowed to leave their homes if they were not accompanied by a man and wearing a full burqa. This week, they pledged to protect women’s rights, but under Sharia law.
In the future, Biden said he doesn’t think war is the right way to go about securing women’s rights.
“The idea that we’re able to deal with the rights of women around the world through military force is not rational,” he told Stephanopoulos. Instead, the U.S. and international community should focus on economic and diplomatic initiatives to secure women’s rights around the world, Biden said.
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