President Joe Biden conceded the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan at a clip he and his administration did not expect after a day of chaos in the country’s capital of Kabul.
“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we anticipated,” Biden said Monday at the White House. “So, what’s happened? Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country.”
The remarks were Biden’s first delivered live in six days regarding Afghanistan and his first since pandemonium broke out at Hamid Karzai International Airport over the weekend after the Taliban took over Kabul, filling the power vacuum left by ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country.
AFGHANISTAN CHAOS CUTS SHORT BIDEN’S WIDELY PANNED SUMMER VACATION
Biden acknowledged that the “buck stopped” with him amid criticism concerning how he and his aides managed the withdrawal of United States troops and diplomatic personnel. Thousands of Afghan allies remain behind, fearing for their lives from a potentially vengeful Taliban, as they await the outcome of a special visa process.
“I am deeply saddened by the facts that we now face. But I do not regret my decision to end America’s war-fighting in Afghanistan,” the president said, warning that the Taliban would suffer repercussions if they intervened with the U.S. extraction.
While Biden accepted part of the blame, he also assigned a portion to former President Donald Trump’s negotiated May 1 drawdown plan, which the president had extended to Aug. 31, and the Afghan forces’ lack of political will.
“American forces cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” he said.
“I know there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghan civilians sooner. Part of the answer is some of the Afghanis did not want to leave early,” he added of the Afghan government’s attempts to avoid a “mass exodus.”
Biden flew back to the White House Monday morning under pressure after spending the weekend watching events unfold in Afghanistan from Camp David. He is due to return to the presidential retreat outside of Washington, D.C.
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At least seven people died amid the chaos at the Kabul airport. Desperate Afghan citizens reportedly were killed after clinging to the fuselage of a departing U.S. military plane.
