Could not defend the country whose leaders gave up and fled: POTUS
New Delhi: Amid the rising challenges in land-lock Afghanistan, The US President on Monday once again defended the withdrawal of the American troops from Afghanistan.
Since the Islamist insurgents took control of the country in his first public appearance, he admitted that the Taliban advance had unfolded more quickly than expected. US troops could not defend a nation whose leaders ‘gave up and fled’ as did President Ashraf Ghani.
In help to Afghanistan, The US president said that “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future. I cannot ask the US soldiers to risk their lives in the country where they have already spent 20 years.”
Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building, Biden added.
Frantic Afghans tried to board the few flights available throughout the day at the airport before US forces — sent in to secure the facility — were forced to temporarily shut down military and civilian operations due to the rowdy crowds.
Other governments including France, Germany, and Australia also organized charter flights. On Monday, dramatic footage posted on social media showed hundreds of men running alongside a US Air Force plane as it rolled down the runway, with some clinging to the side of it.
The airport reopened in the early hours of Tuesday, a US general said, adding that US personnel were now in charge of air traffic control.
Ghani’s departure on Sunday finalized the collapse of his government. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
The State Department said any US ties with a Taliban government would depend on their respect of human rights and rejection of extremism. Biden issued a stern warning to the insurgents, saying any threats to US interests would be met with a “devastating” military response.
Biden said he was “left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay: how many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not?”
