After the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan as US soldiers withdrew, US President Joe Biden has been under intense scrutiny. In a 20-minute tirade, instead of admitting responsibility for the country's destruction, he blamed Afghan officials for its mortality.
President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and blamed the Afghan military for the country's chaos, which has seen the Taliban take dominance. In April, Biden stated that American troops will be out of Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks this year. The deadline to finish the United States' longest war in history was just pushed out to the end of August.
Afghanistan chaos must be blamed on Afghan military, says Biden
"I will not mislead the American people by suggesting that just a little more time in Afghanistan would make all the difference," Biden told reporters during a roughly 18-minute statement at the White House on Monday, Newsweek via MSN reported.
In recent days, Biden has received criticism as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, eventually overthrowing the Afghan government in Kabul on Sunday. As the militants advanced, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Republican members of Congress, in particular, and former President Donald Trump, have attacked the Biden administration's handling of the pullout on several instances.
Concerns about whether the Biden administration was properly prepared to depart Afghanistan were dismissed. Biden appears to have miscalculated the hazards, supporting the decision only last month and dismissing predictions that the Taliban would move in quickly, which turned out to be true.
Per Republic World, Joe Biden defended the US' hasty approach, claiming that American troops entered Afghanistan in 2001 in retribution for al-Qaeda's 9/11assaults. The goal of putting soldiers in a foreign country was to prevent additional al-Qaeda terror strikes from Afghanistan, not to assist Afghanistan in nation-building. The US came with clear intentions to ensure al-Qaeda did not utilize Afghanistan, Biden asserted that the US had not entered Afghanistan for counter-terrorism or reform.
Biden claimed that he did not want to be the fifth President of the United States to let more American soldiers sacrifice lives because of the "ugly burden" of violence in Afghanistan. He also stated that the US is prepared to act "fast, promptly, and forcefully to counter-terrorism" if necessary.
Reiterating his position on the agreement signed by his predecessor Donald Trump, which set a May 1, 2021 deadline for troop withdrawal, Biden stated that he was left with the choice of either carrying out the agreement or deploying thousands of soldiers fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season. He further emphasized that soldiers had already been reduced from 15,500 to 2,500 by the time he took office in January 2021.
Critics chastised Joe Biden's remarks
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina ripped at President Joe Biden and the Taliban on Monday, a day after the terrorist group took control of Afghanistan and forced US and NATO soldiers to flee. He also criticized Biden's statements from Monday afternoon, in which he defended the US departure, calling it a dangerous and shameful route.
Graham went on to claim that Biden has the understanding or judgment to deal with challenges to the United States, calling it a "dangerous and fatal combination." Earlier in the speech criticizing Trump for forcing Biden's hand with his peace agreement with the Taliban when he was president, Biden said, "The buck stops with me."
Biden set an August 31 timetable for the entire withdrawal of US troops, but militants arriving outside Kabul early Sunday morning sparked a chaotic withdrawal. From the embassy in Kabul to the airport, American officials had to be airlifted.
The Taliban gained control of every border crossing out of Afghanistan on Sunday and Monday, leaving Hamid Karzai International Airport as the sole piece of territory remaining under NATO control. As gunshots exploded in the streets of Kabul, families were spotted fleeing to the airport.
Taliban gangs are reported to be scouring Kabul's streets for young girls to exploit as sex slaves, while militants go door-to-door looking for people suspected of assisting Western soldiers during the Afghanistan War and subsequent 20-year intervention.
After the terror group swept across the country and seized Kabul virtually unopposed, chilling reports have emerged of Islamist militants stalking the capital city for women and girls. The speed with which the terror group swept across the country and seized Kabul stunned the US, Britain, and other NATO powers, as per Daily Mail.
Related Article: Donald Trump Calls for Joe Biden to Resign as Administration Admits Miscalculation Over Pace of Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan
