Biden defends Afghanistan pullout despite mounting criticism

U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that he stands "squarely behind" his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan and that the Afghan government's collapse was quicker than anticipated.

"After 20 years, I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces," he said.

Biden said he'd rather take the criticism over the fallout in Afghanistan than pass the decision to a fifth president. He said the decision to leave Afghanistan is "the right one for America." He said keeping a U.S. presence in Afghanistan was no longer a U.S. national security interest.

Biden described the images coming out of Afghanistan particularly at the airport in Kabul, where thousands of Afghans descended in hopes of fleeing the country as "gut-wrenching." Video of Afghans clinging to a U.S. Air Force plane as it prepared to take off had circulated widely on the internet.

But he did not admit any U.S. fault in how the drawdown was executed. The president acknowledged that the Taliban takeover unfolded faster than had been anticipated.About a month ago, Biden batted away the notion of a rapid Taliban takeover.

The speed of the Afghan government's collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test yet of Biden as commander in chief, and he came under intense criticism from Republicans who said he had failed.

Yet the president said the rapid end of the Afghan government only vindicated his decision, noting how the Afghan army surrendered to the Taliban.

"American troops cannot and should not be fighting the warand dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves," Biden said.

Biden criticizes Afghan leaders, Trump

Biden singled out for criticism the two main Afghan leaders, President Ashraf Ghani, whofled the countrySunday, andAbdullah Abdullah, head of the country's High Council for National Reconciliation, saying they had "flatly refused" his advice to seek a political settlement with the Taliban.

"How many more generations of America's daughters and sons would you have me send to fight ... Afghanistan's civil war, when Afghan troops will not?" Biden asked. "How many more lives American lives is it worth? How many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery?"

He also doled out criticism to his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, whose administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that Biden said left the group "in the strongest position militarily since 2001."

The president acknowledged therewere concerns about why Afghans had not been evacuated earlier,but said his administration had been discouraged to do so by theAfghan government at the time.

"Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want toleave earlier, still hopeful for their country," Biden said.

'We could have done a lot more'

But five U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity,told Reuters that weeks before the Washington-backed Afghangovernment collapsed, the U.S. military wanted a bigger role inhelping to evacuate Afghans at risk because they worked for theUnited States. The officials believe that a more orderlywithdrawal would have been likely.

"We could have done a lot more to help. The administrationwaited too long,"a military official said.

In response, a senior administration official cited commentson Monday by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who saidBiden's team has been "engaged for months of extensive scenarioplanning and was ready for this challenge."

Despite the government's rapid collapse, Sullivan said theembassy was closed "safely and swiftly" and that"we are nowlaser-focused on getting people out safely and swiftly."

There were also issues with the intelligence, with oneassessment last week saying Kabul would not be isolated for thenext 30 days at least.

'Every decision has come too late'

A person familiar with the situation said the Bidenadministration was behind the curve as things deteriorated inAfghanistan. "Every decision has come too late and in reactionto events that make the subsequent decision obsolete," thesource said.

Local embassy employees who have been at home for weeks wereleft to make their own way to the airport, the source said.

Emails were sent to them on Sunday after sporadicgunfire to remain in their houses or some other safe location, according to the source.

The pandemonium hampering the evacuations prompted someembassy officials to raise concerns that there was aninsufficient number of U.S. troops to secure the airport,reflecting poor planning and intelligence failures, said thesource.

The source and another U.S. official told Reuters that theadministration so badly misjudged the situation that the StateDepartment flew a regular rotation of diplomats into Kabul lastTuesday even as the Taliban advanced toward the capital.

WATCH | Chaos unfolds as thousands crowd Kabul airport:

Afghans chase U.S. air force plane in desperate attempt to escape country

3 years ago

Duration 0:38

Thousands of people are trying to flee Afghanistan as the Taliban strengthens its grip on the country. Some people chased a U.S. air force plane down the tarmac, while others tried to force their way onto planes at the Kabul airport.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers also weighed in withcriticism.

"The withdrawal of U.S. troops should have been carefullyplanned to prevent violence and instability, and to ensure thatthe hard-fought progress gained over the past two decadesparticularly when it comes to Afghan women and girls wouldnot be lost," said Tom Carper, a U.S. senator from Biden's homestate of Delaware and fellow Democrat.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an opponent of Biden'swithdrawal decision, said it was unlikely that Americanpersonnel and at-risk Afghans could be evacuated by Aug. 31,Biden's deadline for a full withdrawal. Graham said that"artificialdeadline" will likely result in thousands ofAfghans who have helped America being left behind forslaughter.

Biden announced in April that he would be withdrawing theremaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan as part of a 2020 dealmade with the Taliban under former president Donald Trump.

Military officials recommended against it, but someofficials said they felt their views had been heard and theAmerican public was ready to end America's longest war.

Taliban seize U.S.-supplied guns, aircraft

Built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion US, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely in some cases without a shot fired that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also U.S.-supplied firepower guns, ammunition, helicopters and more.

The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centres. Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend.

A U.S. defence official on Monday confirmed the Taliban's sudden accumulation of U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment is enormous. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The reversal is an embarrassing consequence of misjudging the viability of Afghan government forces by the U.S. military as well as intelligence agencies which in some cases chose to surrender their vehicles and weapons rather than
fight.