Biden: US gave Afghans opportunities to decide their future, but they lacked resolve to fight for it
By Team Newsable | First Published Aug 17, 2021, 10:38 AM ISTIn a televised address from the White House, Biden said that our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building and vowed that anti-terrorism operations would continue despite the departure of US troops.
Breaking days of silence, the United States President Joe Biden said he stand squarely behind his decision on Monday. After 20 years, he has learnt the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces, he added.
In a televised address from the White House, Biden said that our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building and vowed that anti-terrorism operations would continue despite the departure of US troops.
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He also stated that "thousands" of US citizens and Afghans who have collaborated with American soldiers will be evacuated in the coming days. If the Taliban undertake strikes meanwhile, the president has warned of a "devastating" military reaction. He went on to say that the US offered them every opportunity to decide their future, but they lacked the resolve to fight for it.
Biden acknowledged the unexpected suddenness of the last Taliban attack, saying, "this did happen more swiftly than we had anticipated."
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While Biden stated that he accepted responsibility for the mission's failure, he lashed out at the former Afghan government and military commanders installed, organized, and backed by Washington during the last two decades. Instead of confronting the approaching Taliban, a highly experienced guerrilla group but less well-equipped than the US-supplied Afghan army, the government retreated.
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