No Americans will be left behind: Joe Biden will extend mission
In his first interview since the Taliban seized Kabul, the US President said that ‘chaos’ had been unavoidable.
Joe Biden said on Thursday that US troops wouldn’t leave any Americans behind in Afghanistan, even if it meant staying in Taliban-controlled Kabul for longer than agreed.
In his first interview since the Taliban seized the Afghan capital, sparking a panicked exodus by foreigners and Afghan allies, the US President told ABC News that “chaos” had been unavoidable.
US leaders have said they are sticking to an August 31 deadline for removing the last troops and handing over the country to the victorious Taliban.
However, Mr Biden said for the first time that US soldiers could stay longer if any Americans were still trying to flee. “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out,” he said.
The US President did not explain how an extension would work. The Taliban are currently standing aside as US troops fly in to secure Kabul’s airport and organise evacuations.
But the militants have full control of the rest of the city and are essentially able to decide who gets through and who doesn’t, while foreign forces are highly limited in their ability to maneuver safely beyond the confines of the airport.
Speaking as the small US force ramped up the frantic evacuations, Mr Biden told ABC News there was never going to be an easy exit.
“The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing — I don’t know how that happens,” he said.
He added that the Taliban were currently assisting the US forces they’d spent so many years battling — at least in helping foreign nationals to escape.
“They’re co-operating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, etcetera,” Mr Biden said.
However, “we’re having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there” leave, he said, apparently referring to local Afghans who used to work alongside US and foreign forces and who now fear retribution.
In the interview, the president rejected criticisms that his administration had suffered a huge intelligence failure.
“It was a simple choice,” Mr Biden said.
Referring to the near overnight collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and army in the face of the advancing Taliban, Mr Biden said he was convinced the already planned US exit had to proceed.
“The threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set... or do we put significantly more troops in?”
Asked what he’d thought when images emerged of panicked Afghans swarming airplanes and stowaways falling out of the aircraft after take-off, Biden said his reaction was: “We have to gain control of this, we have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.”
Earlier the US defence secretary and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff conceded the US could not evacuate all Americans from Afghanistan without co-operation of the Taliban.
Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, respectively, said the 4500 US forces in Afghanistan didn’t have the ability to secure corridors from the airport to Hamid Karzai International Airport, revealing they had “emphasised” to the Taliban that “who are trying to get to the airport and have the right credentials” need to be allowed through.
“We don’t have the capability to go out and collect up large numbers of people [without Taliban co-operation],” Mr Austin said.
“It’s obvious we’re not close to where we want to be in terms of getting the numbers [of people] through,” he added, adding the US had a “urgent.. moral obligation to help those who helped us”.
US forces evacuated 2000 people from Afghanistan over the 24 hours to Wednesday morning ET, including 325 American citizens, bringing the total evacuated to 3200, US defence officials briefed, which leaves more than 70,000 Americans and Afghans eligible to leave in the land locked country.
“The timeframe of a rapid collapse was widely estimated and ranged from weeks to months and even years following our departure,” General Milley said, speaking alongside Mr Austin at the Pentagon.
“[But] there was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” he added.
“Right now our mission is to secure that airfield, defend that airfield, and evacuate all those who have been faithful to us,” he added, putting the fall of the Afghan army down to a “failure of will and leadership”.
Amid the scramble by foreign governments including Australia and the UK, to evacuate their citizens, it emerged France, alone among western nation, had kept its embassy open, becoming a magnet for Afghans seeking to escape the country.
On Tuesday night, Afghanistan time, a convoy of some 10 buses left the French Embassy for the airport, stopping at Taliban checkpoints, mostly Afghan passengers boarding a French military plane to Abu Dhabi.
The Pentagon press conference came a few hours after the former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, speaking for the first time since he fled the nation, said his early departure was to avoid bloodshed and the destruction of Afghanistan, and save his own life.
“Whatever happened 25 years ago would be repeated if I had stayed the President of Afghanistan,” he said from the United Arab Emirates.
“I would have been hanged in front of the eyes of the people of Afghanistan and this would have been a dreadful disaster in our history,” he added.
Hours later one of his former ambassadors, to Tajikistan, accused Ghani of stealing nearly $170 million from the country, calling for him to be arrested.
Separately, the State department released a joint statement of 21 countries in including Australia and New Zealand calling on the Taliban to respect the rights of women and girls, amid mounting fears the extremist Islamist regime won’t live up to its promises.
“We are deeply worried about Afghan women and girls, their rights to education, work and freedom of movement. “Any form of discrimination and abuse should be prevented. We in the international community stand ready to assist them with humanitarian aid and support, to ensure that their voices can be heard,” it read.
As criticism of the US government in Washington rolled into its fourth day, it emerged President Biden’s approval rate fell below 50 per cent for the first time in his presidency.
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