WASHINGTON — President Biden touted his notorious resolution to finish the American navy presence in Afghanistan throughout an end-of-term international coverage speech Monday, saying he “noticed no motive to maintain hundreds of servicemen” there — regardless of prime generals warning him towards the transfer.
“As we speak, I may also report back to the American folks [as] the primary president in a long time who’s not leaving a warfare in Afghanistan to his successor,” the 82-year-old boasted on the State Division, arguing that “the first goal of warfare had been completed” when SEAL Staff Six took out Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden throughout a daring Pakistan raid in 2011.
“I imagine[d] that going ahead, the first menace of Al Qaeda would now not be emanating from Afghanistan, however from elsewhere, and so we didn’t must station sizeable quantity[s] of American forces in Afghanistan,” added the president, admitting that he “had a selection” on whether or not to maintain the troops there.
“For my part, it was time to finish the warfare and produce our troops residence, and we did.”
However that view was heartily opposed by Biden’s prime navy advisers — together with then-Chief of the Joint Workers Mark Milley — who predicted the speedy downfall of the Afghan authorities except the US saved at the very least 2,500 troops in nation.
These warnings proved true on Aug. 15, 2021, when the Taliban — which the US-led invasion had ousted from energy twenty years earlier than — took Kabul even earlier than the final US troops left the nation.
Since then, the Taliban has been imposing oppressive insurance policies on the Afghan folks — together with banning girls from talking in public — and siphoning international funding away from humanitarian efforts and into their very own pockets whereas striving to develop into acknowledged by the worldwide group
The Taliban’s return was largely seen within the US veteran group as a slap within the face to the efforts of lots of of hundreds of American service members through the 20 years of warfare.
However Biden made no point out of the repercussions of his resolution Monday, as an alternative patting himself on the again for the US now not “spending lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} a day” on Afghanistan.
”By ending the warfare, we’ve been in a position to focus our power and assets on our pressing challenges,” he mentioned. “There’s nothing — I can let you know from my dialog each [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin — nothing our adversaries and rivals like Russia and China would have appreciated greater than to have seen us to proceed to be tied down in Afghanistan for one more decade.
“For all these causes, ending the warfare was the best factor to do, and I imagine historical past will replicate that.”
Biden additionally failed to say the Aug. 26, 2021, ISIS-Ok suicide assault on Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport’s Abbey Gate, which killed 13 service members and lots of of Afghans making an attempt to flee the fundamentalist Taliban.
The president briefly talked about “these courageous service members whose lives have been misplaced through the withdrawal” — however didn’t go into additional element.
“I commend the braveness of all those that served in Afghanistan,” he mentioned. “We grieve all 2,461 People who made the final word sacrifice within the longest warfare in American historical past.’
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who led a Home investigation into the withdrawal as chair of the chamber’s International Affairs Committee, mentioned in an announcement that Biden “as soon as once more touted his botched Afghanistan withdrawal as a victory — claiming it didn’t injury our alliances nor create a haven for terrorism.
“These are bold-faced lies,” McCaul added. “The withdrawal telegraphed US weak spot all over the world and resulted within the launch of hundreds of ISIS terrorists from the prisons at Bagram.
“Joe Biden’s presidency will eternally be marred by international coverage blunders that lit the world on fireplace. To faux in any other case is an insult to the American folks.”
The International Affairs Committee’s bombshell 2024 report on the withdrawal discovered that Biden had dismissed the considerations of numerous officers and US allies when he ignored withdrawal circumstances agreed to by the primary Trump administration within the Doha Settlement, “pleas by the Afghan authorities, and objections by US allies when he made the unilateral resolution to withdraw.”
Home Republican Caucus Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) additionally blasted Biden’s self-congratulatory remarks, saying in a submit to X that “America is WEAKER—not stronger due to Joe Biden.”
“America is MOCKED—not feared,” she wrote, including: “In seven days, President Trump will reverse Biden’s destruction and make America revered once more.”