As US military operations end in Afghanistan, Biden said that the end of the war in Afghanistan marks the end of an era for major military operations to remake other countries, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that the United States will continue to support the Afghan people through diplomacy, international influence, and humanitarian aid.
“We will continue to support the Afghan people through diplomacy, international influence, and humanitarian aid. We will continue to speak out for basic rights of the Afghan people — especially women and girls — as we do around the world,” Biden said during a speech at the White House, a day after the US’s chaotic withdrawal ended.
As US military operations end in Afghanistan, Biden said that the end of the war in Afghanistan marks the end of an era for major military operations to remake other countries.
“We must stay clearly focused on the fundamental national security interests of the United States. This decision about Afghanistan isn’t just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries,” Biden said.
“We saw a mission of counterterrorism in Afghanistan, getting the terrorists and stopping attacks, morph into a counterinsurgency, nation-building, trying to create a democratic, cohesive, and united Afghanistan, something that has never been done over many centuries of Afghanistan’s history. Moving on from that mindset and those kinds of large-scale troop deployments will make us stronger and more effective and safer at home,” he stated.
US President also said he refuses to send another generation of young men and women “to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”
“After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refuse to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should’ve ended long ago,” he said.
“It was time to be honest with the American people again. We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” Biden said.
He further stated, “most of all, after 800,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan … After 20,744 American servicemen and women injured, and the loss of 2,461 American personnel, including 13 lives lost just this week, I refuse to open another decade of warfare in Afghanistan.”
Biden continued to address the estimated more than USD 2 trillion costs of the war and how the money spent may have hindered American national interests over the years.
“What have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities? I refuse to continue a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people,” he said.
“We’ve been a nation too long at war. If you’re 20 years old today, you’ve never known an America at peace. So when I hear that we could have, should’ve continued this so-called low-grade effort in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low cost, I don’t think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 per cent of this country who put that uniform on, willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation,” he added.
We are not done with you yet, Biden warns ISIS-K
Biden warned the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the group which killed 13 US troops in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport, and said that the US is not done with the terrorist group. “To ISIS-K we are not done with you yet,” Biden said, adding that “to those who wish America harm, we will hunt you down and you will pay the ultimate price.” Biden’s address to the nation comes a day after the last American military planes left the country, concluding the nation’s longest war nearly 20 years after it began.
Biden, in defending a decision that has drawn scrutiny for its execution, said the real decision in Afghanistan was “between leaving and escalating,” framing his choice to withdraw troops as the only option aside from surging more forces to the country.
“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said.
The United States forces left Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, marking the end of a chaotic and messy exit from America’s longest war. Biden also said this is a new world, the terror threat has metastasized across the world, adding, “the threat from terrorism continues, but it’s changed. Our strategy needs to change too.”