President Joe Biden gave a somber farewell to America’s longest conflict Wednesday, but members of Congress charge he failed to clarify how the lives of more than 2,000 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan could be justified if the Taliban remain aligned with al Qaeda.
“We went to Afghanistan in 2001 to root out al Qaeda, to prevent future terrorist attacks against the United States, planned from Afghanistan. Our objective was clear,” Biden said in an address to the nation that lasted just over 15 minutes.
“I said, along with others, we would follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, if need be. That’s exactly what we did, and we got him,” said Biden, who cautioned former President Barack Obama not to conduct the risky raid into Pakistan that captured and killed the al Qaeda leader.
News of Biden’s plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan fully had already been relayed by a senior administration official Tuesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Brussels with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to discuss the specifics of a concurrent NATO drawdown of its 7,000 troops.
BIDEN TO SAY ‘IDEAL CONDITIONS’ FOR CLEAN AFGHANISTAN EXIT WILL NEVER EXIST
But members of Congress who have opposed the move point to the continued al Qaeda connection with the Taliban, which is likely to grow stronger as the Taliban continue battlefield gains against the Afghan government without air support from the U.S. military.
“Members of al Qaeda have been operating in Afghanistan as recently as March,” House Armed Services Committee ranking member Mike Rogers said in a statement Tuesday.
“Maintaining the capability of coalition troops to continue gathering valuable intelligence and leading counterterrorism efforts with our NATO partners is more important than fulfilling a campaign promise,” he added. “I am concerned that the President is so desperate to get a deal done, that he is willing to capitulate, rather than insist US strategic objectives are met.”
Rogers said the Taliban decision to pull out of a planned peace summit in Turkey this week is a sign they are not interested in working with the government in Kabul.
House Intelligence Committee and Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner said on Fox Business on Wednesday that the move shows that the Biden administration does not understand what he calls a threat emanating from Afghanistan.
“It’s a horrible symbolism,” he said of the choice of a full drawdown before the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. “Clearly, as we look to Afghanistan, you know, we have to look to how do we keep Afghanistan safe, keep the Taliban from taking power, the threat of ISIS growing in Afghanistan.”
Still, Biden and his supporters say the metric that no terrorist attacks have been planned in Afghanistan since 2001 is reason enough to depart militarily.
“With the terror threat now in many places, keeping thousands of troops grounded and concentrated in just one country at a cost of billions each year makes little sense to me and to our leaders,” the commander in chief said. “Over the past 20 years, the threat has become more dispersed, metastasizing around the globe — al Shabab in Somalia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Nusra in Syria, ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates in multiple countries in Africa and Asia.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith buttressed the president’s argument that terrorist groups are now dispersed and soldiers need to be globally deployed to address the threat wherever it may exist.
“Our goal in the region has always been to prevent transnational terrorists from launching an attack against the United States or our allies,” he said. “There are other means to monitor that threat and manage risk and, at this point, the cost and risk of a continued troop presence, both US troops and those of our allies, outweigh the benefits.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Biden indicated troops would begin to withdrawal by May 1, the date the Doha peace agreement with the Taliban had originally indicated a full withdrawal would be complete.
“We were attacked. We want to war with clear goals. We achieved those objectives,” he said. “Bin Laden is dead, and al Qaeda is degraded in Afghanistan, and it’s time to end the forever war.”
