WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden says the US military operation in Afghanistan will end on August 31, delivering an impassioned argument for exiting the nearly 20-year war without sacrificing more American lives even as he bluntly acknowledged there will be no “mission accomplished” moment to celebrate.
Biden pushed back against the notion the US mission has failed but also noted that it remains unlikely the government would control all of Afghanistan after the US leaves. He urged the Afghan government and Taliban, which he said remains as formidable as it did before the start of the war, to come to a peace agreement.
“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build,” Biden said in a Thursday speech from the White House’s East Room. “Afghan leaders have to come together and drive toward a future.”
The administration in recent days has sought to frame ending the conflict as a decision that Biden made after concluding it’s an “unwinnable war” and one that “does not have a military solution.” On Thursday he amplified the justification of his decision even as the Taliban make rapid advances in significant swaths of the country.
“How many more, how many more thousands of American daughters and sons are you willing to risk?” Biden said to those calling for the US to extend the military operation. He added, “I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan, with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.”
The new withdrawal date comes after former President Donald Trump’s administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban to end the US military mission by May 1. Biden after taking office announced US troops would be out by the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack, which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden plotted from Afghanistan, where he had been given refuge by the Taliban.
With US and Nato ally forces rapidly drawing down in the past week, there was growing speculation that US combat operations have already effectively ended. But by setting August 31 as the drawdown date, the administration nodded to the reality that the long war is in its final phase, while providing itself some cushion to deal with outstanding matters.
The administration has yet to complete talks with Turkey on an arrangement for maintaining security at the Kabul airport and is still ironing out details for the potential evacuation of thousands of Afghans who assisted the US military operation.
Biden said that prolonging US military involvement, considering Trump had already agreed to withdraw US troops, would have led to an escalation of attacks on American troops and Nato allies.
“The Taliban would have again begun to target our forces,” Biden said. “The status quo was not an option. Staying meant US troops taking casualties. American men and women. Back in the middle of a civil war. And we would run the risk of having to send more troops back in Afghanistan to defend our remaining troops.”
The President added that there is no “mission accomplished” moment as the US war comes to an end.
“The mission was accomplished in that we got Osama bin Laden and terrorism is not emanating from that part of the world,” he said. US forces killed bin Laden in 2011.
US forces this week vacated Bagram Airfield—the US epicenter of the conflict to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 2001 terrorist attacks that triggered the war.
Remaining US troops are now concentrated in Kabul, the capital. The Pentagon said the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, is expected to end his tour of duty this month as final arrangements are made for a reduced US military mission.
Biden, answering questions from reporters after his remarks on Thursday, said that Kabul falling to the Taliban would not be an acceptable outcome. The President also pushed back against the notion that such a scenario was certain.
“Do I trust the Taliban? No,” Biden said. “But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war.”
To be certain, the West hopes Taliban gains will be confined mostly to rural areas, with the Afghan government and its allies retaining control of the cities where much of Afghanistan’s population resides. And while the Taliban remain a major power in Afghanistan, the government’s supporters hope that Afghans will work out the Taliban role in the post-US Afghanistan power structure more through political than military means, partly through the inducements of international legitimacy, aid and other support.
Asked by a reporter whether rampant corruption within the Afghan government contributed to the failure of achieving the sort of stability that his predecessors and American military commanders envisioned, Biden didn’t exactly dismiss the notion. “The mission hasn’t failed—yet.”
Biden continues to face pressure from congressional lawmakers to offer further detail on how he intends to go about assisting thousands of Afghans who helped the US military as translators, drivers and in other jobs. Many are fearful they will be targets of the Taliban once the US withdrawal is complete. AP