U.S. President Joe Biden discusses his ‘Construct Again Higher’ agenda and administration efforts to “decrease prescription drug costs” throughout a speech within the East Room on the White Home in Washington, August 12, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Saturday that he had accepted further army forces to go to Kabul to assist safely draw down the American embassy and take away personnel from Afghanistan.
In a prolonged assertion, Biden defended his resolution to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, arguing that Afghan forces needed to battle again in opposition to Taliban forces sweeping by way of the nation.
“Primarily based on the suggestions of our diplomatic, army and intelligence groups, I’ve approved the deployment of roughly 5,000 U.S. troops to ensure we will have an orderly and secure drawdown of U.S. personnel and different allied personnel,” Biden stated. The troops may also help the evacuation of some Afghans going by way of a particular visa program.
A U.S. protection official, talking on the situation of anonymity, stated of the 5,000 Biden introduced, 4,000 had been already beforehand introduced. About 1,000 had been newly accepted and can be from the 82nd airborne division.
Biden stated that his administration had advised Taliban officers in Qatar that an motion that put U.S. personnel in danger, “will probably be met with a swift and powerful U.S. army response.”
However he additionally stated an indefinite U.S. army presence was not an possibility.
“Yet another 12 months, or 5 extra years, of U.S. army presence wouldn’t have made a distinction if the Afghan army can not or won’t maintain its personal nation. And an infinite American presence in the midst of one other nation’s civil battle was not acceptable to me,” Biden added.
Biden has set a proper finish to the U.S. army mission in Afghanistan for Aug. 31 as he seems to disengage from a battle that began after al Qaeda attacked the US on Sept. 11, 2001.
Biden’s transfer on Saturday got here amid rising stress to regulate a withdrawal plan that’s producing a number of the harshest criticism of his six months in workplace.
A tweet from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina mirrored a number of the criticism: “If President Biden actually has no regrets about his resolution to withdraw, then he’s disconnected from actuality in relation to Afghanistan.”
The Taliban have swept by way of a lot of Afghanistan, capturing a significant metropolis in northern Afghanistan on Saturday and drawing nearer to Kabul, the place Western international locations scrambled to evacuate their residents from the capital.
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