‘NATION BUILDING’ WAS NEVER A US GOAL IN AFGHANISTAN, BIDEN SAYS

Mon 16 August 2021:

US President Joe Biden is defending his decision to withdraw US forces, claiming the mission “was never supposed to be about nation-building.”

“It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralised democracy,” Biden said.

“I’ve argued for many years that our mission should be narrowly focused on counterterrorism, not counter-insurgency or nation building.”

Biden: ‘I stand squarely behind’ decision to withdraw US forces

“I stand squarely behind my decision” to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden has said in his first public comments since the Taliban took full control of the country.

Biden said the collapse of the Afghan government amid the Taliban’s rapid advance “did unfold more quickly than we anticipated”.

“If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision. American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said.

Biden acknowledges Afghan collapse quicker than expected

US President Joe Biden has acknowledged that the Afghan government collapsed more quickly than he expected even as he defended his decision to withdraw troops.

“I always promised the American people that I will be straight with you. The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” Biden said in a national address.

“We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.”

Biden made his remarks, Following chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans gathered in a desperate attempt to flee.

On Sunday, the Taliban took control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, as well as districts throughout the city, just hours after President Ashraf Ghani departed, a move he subsequently justified as necessary to prevent greater bloodshed, but which Afghans condemned as “unpatriotic and tragic.”

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