Biden announces that the US military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31

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President Biden said the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan after 20 years of war would end on August 31, before the September 11 deadline he announced in mid-April.

“We are in the process of ending the longest war in the country,” the president said in remarks at the White House on Thursday.

By the time the September deadline was announced, about 3,500 soldiers remained. Earlier this week, the Pentagon said the withdrawal was 90% complete. It went fast for some reason.

“Our military commanders advised me that once I made the decision to end the war, we must move quickly to conduct the key elements of withdrawal, and in this context, speed is safety,” the president said. A different approach “would certainly have come with increased safety risks for our personnel,” and he noted that so far, no US military has been lost in the process.

Last week, US forces pulled out of Bagram Air Force Base, the largest US base in the country. The handover of Bagram to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces completed the US transfer of all seven bases to Afghanistan, in effect, to finish the logistical part of the withdrawal.

Although the president has set August 31 as the official deadline for US forces to leave Afghanistan, the withdrawal is complete for all intents and purposes, with the transfer of control of Bagram. The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, will soon leave the remaining forces under the responsibility of a two-star general.

Biden announces the withdrawal of Afghan forces… 37:14

The military supports the president’s decision, even if its top military advisers did not initially conclude that the United States should withdraw. But Mr. Biden heard what they had to say, met them no less than six times, and showed he was reading the summary books. In the end they both agreed that the United States could not remain in Afghanistan forever – there are greater threats facing the nation than al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: the way forward More

“The United States cannot remain constrained by policies that create a response to a world as it was 20 years ago,” Mr. Biden said. We need to confront the threats where they are today.”

The president said the United States will continue to have a diplomatic presence in the country. To maintain an embassy in Kabul, several hundred troops would remain for protection, and could support more security at Kabul International Airport.

With the withdrawal of US forces, the Taliban steadily captured more territory. In the past two months, it has controlled more than 80 of Afghanistan’s 407 provinces, according to the Long War Journal, which follows the conflict closely. In the past week alone, the Taliban have taken control of 10% of the country, and they currently control 195 districts.

But Mr. Biden stressed Thursday that it is not inevitable that the Taliban will take over the country, noting that Afghan forces outnumber the Taliban by about 300,000 to 75,000.

“The Afghan government and the Afghan leadership must unite,” the president said. “It is clear that they have the ability to support the government.” “The question is will they generate the kind of cohesion to do this? It’s not a question of whether they have the ability – they have the ability. They have the forces. They have the equipment. The question is will they do it?”

Biden Q&A on the withdrawal from Afghanistan 12:48

Mr. Biden insisted that “the mission didn’t fail first”, but also noted that “no country ever united Afghanistan”, and that “empires went there and didn’t.”

Besides withdrawing troops, the United States is still working to move more than 60,000 Afghans — 18,000 translators and their families — out of the country to protect them from Taliban retaliation. Mr. Biden promised that Afghans who risked so much to help the United States “will not be left behind.”

He announced that starting from the month, the department will start transfer flights to third countries outside Afghanistan for applicants and their families who wish to leave.

“There is a home for you in the United States if you so choose, and we will stand by you as you have stood with us,” Mr. Biden said.

When asked what the US would do if Kabul fell, Mr Biden said the US would make a decision based on the danger to the US

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the United States remains committed to air force assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently approved the delivery of two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters again this month with another 35 coming in addition to the purchase of three more A-29s.

“It’s not like we clap our hands and leave,” Kirby said when detailing the support the Pentagon continues to provide.

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