Joe Biden defends Afghanistan withdrawal, says it’s time to leave

Defiant Joe Biden warns the Taliban will face ‘devastating’ military force if it disrupts the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as he digs in.

Afghans try to board planes in Kabul to flee the Taliban. Picture: Twitter

A defiant US president has warned the Taliban will face “devasting” military force if it disrupts the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and blamed the defunct Afghan government for the bungled withdrawal that has seen the Muslim nation collapse into chaos.

In an address to the nation Joe Biden said the purpose for the war had been accomplished and it was time to leave. “Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building,” he said.

President Biden, rejecting criticism of the US withdrawal, conceded it had been “hard and messy and far from perfect,” but said the collapse of the nation vindicated his decision to end US military involvement in Afghanistan, which began in 2001.

“I stand squarely behind my decision, after 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way. There was never a good time to withdraw US forces, that’s why we are still there” he said.

“Events we’re seeing now are proof that no amount of military force would deliver a stable united secure Afghanistan,” he added.

The president returned to Washington DC from Camp David on Monday local time, facing a barrage of criticism for his administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which saw the previous government collapse far sooner than the administration expected, leaving potentially thousands of Afghans facing persecution by the new fundamentalist regime.

“The mission was never supposed to be about nation building, it was never supposed to be creating a unified centralised democracy,” he added, speaking at the White House on Monday afternoon.

“The choice I had to make, as president, was either to follow through or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season,” he added.

President Biden blamed the previous Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani, who has fled the country, for misleading the US into thinking Afghan security forces, which the US has trained for years at a cost of billions, would be able to resist the Taliban.

“President Ghani insisted Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong,” he revealed, referring to private telephone conversations the two Presidents had had since President Biden announced in April that he would withdraw US forces.

“Afghan political leaders gave up and fled. The Afghan military collapsed, without trying to fight … American troops cannot and should not be fighting and dying in war that Afghan forces aren’t willing to fight for themselves,” he said,

“This is what I believe to my core, it is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghan’s own armed forces would not,” he said.

Facing a deluge of criticism for not evacuating more US and Afghan personnel in advance of the weekend’s fall of Kabul, the, president said many Afghans did not want to leave early and the Afghan government had resisted such a strategy.

“The Afghan government discouraged us from organising a mass exodus to avoid triggering a crisis of confidence,” he said.

President Biden said US forces had been drawn down from 15,500 to 2,500 during the previous Trump administration, leaving the Taliban stronger than it had ever been since 2001, and he had not desire to ever increase those numbers.

“How many more generations of American daughters and sons would have you have me send to fight the Afghan civil war? How many endless rows of headstones at Arlington national cemetery,” he asked, stressing he had the support of the overwhelming bulk of the American public.

“I made a commitment when I ran, that I would bring the involvement to an end, I’ve honoured that commitment,” he said,

“Our true strategic competitors China and Russia would love nthing more than us to continue to funnel billions in resources and attention indefinitely,” He said.

The president didn’t take questions from journalists.

US President Joe Biden has said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan had happened faster than expected, as he defended his actions in withdrawing troops.

In an address to the nation Mr Biden said the purpose for the war had been accomplished and it was time to leave. “Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building,” he said, citing “many missteps” over the past two decades.

“The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” he said, while warning the Taliban of a swift military response if the U.S. withdrawal is impeded.

“I am president of the United States of America and the buck stops with me,” Mr Biden said. “I am deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision.”

He alluded to his administration’s foreign-policy pivot from the Middle East to focus on competition with China and ongoing tension with Russia and said the terrorism threat facing the US means it needs to focus beyond Afghanistan.

As chaos mounted in Kabul, the president returned to the White House earlier Monday (Tuesday AEST) from Camp David. His administration, in defending his decision to withdraw troops, has pointed to a February 2020 agreement former President Donald Trump made with the Taliban to wind down the US presence.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks about the situation in Afghanistan in the East Room of the White House. Picture: AFP.

Mr Biden spoke as urgent international evacuation flights out of Kabul were halted because of ongoing chaos at the airfield where desperate Afghan people continue to swarm the tarmac.

An American-led international operation to extract expat workers, embassy staff and vulnerable local contractors stopped on Monday because it was deemed too dangerous for aircraft to take off.

Two German military transport planes were unable to land at Kabul because of the large number of people on the airfield, which could also delay the arrival of Australia’s own RAAF mission.

“No flight movements can take place there at present, because there is a large number of desperate people on the tarmac,” the German foreign office said.

Mr Biden has authorised a further 1000 military to help take control of the commercial side of the airport, taking the total US support to 7000 personnel.

Thousands of Afghans continue to mill on the civilian side of the airport taking refuge and hoping for commercial airliner activities to resume. Amid the panic and desperation, some Afghans have been clinging to the skin of the military aircraft, only to fall to their deaths when the landing gear retracted over the Afghan capital. The Taliban began to patrol the civilian side of the airport, firing at people trying to enter over a high wall.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed that all flights, both civilian and military, have been halted at Kabul because of the danger posed by crowds of civilians running onto the runway.

“US military forces are on the scene working alongside Turkish and other international troops to clear the area of people. We do not know how long this will take,” Kirby said.

Meanwhile US military forces shot and killed two armed men at the airport and one US soldier was wounded during a gun battle on Monday.

“In the thousands of people who were there peacefully, two guys who had weapons brandished them menacingly. They were both killed,” an American official told Associated Press.

French president Emmanuel Macron said Afghanistan must not become a terrorist ‘sanctuary’ and warned of significant migration into Europe.

“We must anticipate and protect ourselves against significant irregular migratory flows that would endanger the migrants and risk encouraging trafficking of all kinds,” Mr Macron said.

Mr Macron, who had also spoken to British prime minister Boris Johnson, said: “Afghanistan must not become the haven for terrorists that it once was’’, adding that France would do all it could to ensure Russia, the US and Europe “cooperate efficiently as our interests are the same.”

“Our actions will above all be aimed at fighting actively against Islamist terrorism in all its forms,” he said.

Mr Johnson said he would host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders, and also work with France ‘’to help get our nationals and others get to safety’’.

The German chancellor Angela Merkel said of the Taliban coup: “This is an extremely bitter development. Bitter, dramatic and terrifying.

“I am thinking of the pain of families of soldiers who lost their lives fighting there,” she said. “Now everything seems so hopeless.”

A British bomb disposal expert who served two tours in Afghanistan with the 101 Engineer regiment and who lost both of his legs said his friends “died in vain,” after the Taliban regained control over the country.

Jack Cummings tweeted his dismay and horror of the Taliban’s supremacy, which coincided with his 11th anniversary of his traumatic “Bangaversary,”. He said “Was it worth it, probably not. Did I lose my legs for nothing, looks like it. Did my mates die in vain. Yep.”

Was it worth it, probably not. Did I lose my legs for nothing, looks like it. Did my mates die in vain. Yep. On my 11th Bangaversary it’s a very somber one. Many emotions going through my head, anger, betrayal sadness to name a few…. pic.twitter.com/xNkjZ9qqe6

— Jack Cummings (@Jack_Top4997) August 14, 2021

Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UN, Ghulam Isaczai, told a UN emergency meeting on Monday that target killings had already begun.

“Kabul residents are reporting that Taliban have already started house to house searches in some neighborhoods in Kabul, registering names and looking for people in their target list”, said Mr Isaczai. “There are already reports of target killings and looting in the city”.

The UN Security Council called for “inclusive negotiations” to establish a new government in Afghanistan that is “united, inclusive and representative, including with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.”

Operation: desert them all in Taliban hell

Thousands of panicked Afghans flooded Kabul airport and fought to board grounded planes on Monday, in a desperate bid to flee the Taliban, whose weekend capture of the national capital has forced the collapse of the government and sparked warnings that the country could again become a terrorism safe haven.

Crowds of men and women, some carrying young children, dodged bullets as they flooded into the airport in the hope of escaping a Taliban regime they fear will unravel two decades of progress and once again enforce a draconian sharia law on the country.

In scenes reminiscent of the fall of Saigon 46 years ago, some even clung to the wheels and wings of military planes while others were shot dead by sporadic gunfire, escalating the chaos sparked by rumours that flights were waiting to evacuate Afghan civilians wanting to leave the country.

As US embassy staff evacuated to the city’s former NATO terminal and the flag was lowered on its sprawling Kabul compound, America’s strategic rivals Russia and China began moving to fill the void left by the retreating Biden administration and capitalise on its humiliation.

Amid an international scramble to evacuate foreign nationals from the country, Scott Morrison said those preparing to leave Afghanistan must be allowed to do so without threat or hindrance.

A US soldier points his gun towards an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport on Monday. Picture: AFP

Australian special forces were on the ground to help evacuate Australian citizens and humanitarian visa applicants from Kabul, and an RAAF flight had departed for Afghanistan from Queensland’s Amberley air base. Another two RAAF flight were on standby.

“As in any crisis situation, the Australian government priority is to ensure the safety of its citizens,” the Prime Minister said.

“We have over 130 Australians in Afghanistan working in the UN, NGOs and elsewhere, and we are working to bring them and their families home.”

Beijing state newspaper the Global Times accused the US of leaving “Afghanistan in tatters” and of being an “unreliable partner, while Moscow declared its staff would remain at their embassy.

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday night that Beijing was ready to deepen “friendly and co-operative” relations with the new regime in Afghanistan.

The Russian ambassador announced he would meet the Taliban security co-ordinator on Tuesday but that recognition of the new government would be “based on its conduct”. “If the US cedes this space to its rivals there are strategic implications but there is really nothing it can do about that,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst with Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Centre.

“The best-case scenario for Moscow and Beijing is that the US leaves and Afghanistan is stable enough for them to move in and gain influence. But that can only work if the security situation allows them to.”

Australian forces were understood to be waiting for US troops to assure control of Kabul airport before sending in flights to pick up citizens and visa holders.

A key condition of the US troop withdrawal agreement, negotiated by the former Trump administration, was that the Taliban sever all ties with al-Qa’ida, the terrorist group that it refused to expel in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. That has not happened and few believe it will.

Afghans crowd the tarmac of the Kabul airport on Monday. Picture: AFP

Underscoring those concerns, former Trump national security adviser HR McMaster warned that the Afghanistan-Pakistan region would remain a centre of terrorism, home to more than 20 US-designated terrorist organisations in the region, many of which, he said, remained “determined to murder Americans and our allies”.

Among those groups is the South Asia chapter of ISIS, which Mr Kugelman predicted would flourish under the Taliban, despite the fact it was a key rival.

“Even if war does stop, Afghanistan under Taliban rule is going to be a violent place and very unstable,” Mr Kugelman said.

“Eventually there will be a civil war and that’s an environment that any militant group thrives in. ISIS will be in a position to develop a larger stronghold and be more comfortable operating, which could put it in a better position to mount attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.”

By Monday afternoon all civilian flights out of Kabul had been grounded, closing off one of the last routes available for fleeing Afghans. Major airlines – including Virgin Atlantic, United and British Airways – had begun rerouting flights to avoid Afghanistan’s airspace.

Neighbouring Uzbekistan reported late on Monday that an ­Afghan military plane had crashed near its border, with a local doctor saying his hospital had taken in two injured soldiers wearing ­Afghan military uniforms.

Only military evacuation flights were taking off from Kabul, leaving millions of Afghans to the mercy of the Taliban extremists who marched into the presidential palace on Sunday hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country with a small coterie of aides. Mr Ghani later issued a statement saying he had left the country to “prevent a flood of bloodshed’’.

His two-time presidential rival Abdullah Abdullah warned “God will hold him accountable and the people of Afghanistan will also judge him” for abandoning his country.

Afghanistan’s acting defence minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, was also scathing of the fleeing President, posting on Twitter: “They tied our hands from behind and sold the country. Curse Ghani and his gang.”

It was left to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai to calm the populace, issuing a video with his three daughters in which he assured he would remain in Kabul.

“We are trying to solve the issue of Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership peacefully,” he said.

He added that he, Dr Abdullah and former Islamist war lord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had formed a council to handle the transition.

While the Taliban had earlier announced its fighters would not enter people’s homes or businesses, and would offer “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces, reports are emerging of revenge killings and other brutalities.

Thousands of Taliban fighters and prisoners freed from jails across the country, including Bagram prison near Kabul, have also begun fanning out into the community.

Former US official Rina Amiri, involved in Afghanistan policy over the past two decades, warned that Afghanistan under a triumphant Taliban was in danger of a “Srebrenica or Rwanda moment”.