‘Only Afghans can deliver a stable and secure Afghanistan,’ as Biden justifies withdrawal of US forces

Amid calls from mostly opposition political parties in the country and those in Europe for his resignation over poor handling of Afghanistan’s collapse into the hands of the Taliban, United States President, Joe Biden, Monday, insisted that he took the right decision for pullout of American troops, adding that no amount of military support can deliver a secure country without the will of Afghans.

Biden said this during a national address, Monday, from the White House.

It would be recalled that US forces invaded the then Taliban-controlled government in Afghanistan weeks after the September 9, 2001 attacks in New York by then Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda group.

The US launched air strikes one month following the September 11, 2001 attacks and after the Taliban had refused to hand over the man behind them, Osama bin Laden.

The US was joined by an international coalition of NATO and some Gulf nations and the Taliban were quickly removed from power in Afghanistan.

However, they turned into an insurgent force and continued deadly attacks, destabilising subsequent Afghan governments.

The international coalition ended its combat mission in 2014, staying only to train Afghan forces. But the US continued its own, scaled-back combat operation, including air strikes.

Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had initiated the pullout of American troops from Afghanistan back in February 2020 after signing a peace deal with the Taliban. The development consequently saw the thinning of U.S support staff in the country.

In February 2020, then United States President Trump and the Taliban signed an ‘agreement for bringing peace’ to Afghanistan after more than 18 years of conflict.

The US and its NATO allies also agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal.

Trump said it had been a ‘long and hard journey’ in Afghanistan, adding: “It’s time after all these years to bring our people back home.”

Under the agreement, the Taliban agreed not to allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control.

The original agreement allowed for total pullout of American troops and support staff by May, 2022, but Biden pushed it back to September, this year.

However, responding in a national broadcast, Monday, to the criticism of his handling of the affair which allowed the Taliban, on Sunday, to sack the Afghan democratically-elected government of President Ashraf Ghani, Biden insisted the sudden collapse of the Afghanistan government in recent days was the fault of Afghan politicians and security forces who, he accused of easily surrendering in the face of Taliban advances.

Biden insisted that their lack of will justified his decisions to pull all U.S. troops out of the country.

“There was only the cold reality of either following through on the [withdrawal] agreement or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat. After 20 years. I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces [from Afghanistan.]”

“Some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier, still hopeful for their country. It was also in part because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus, to avoid triggering, as they said, a crisis of confidence.

“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001, and ensure that al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again.

“We did that. We severely degraded al Qaida in Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we got him. That was a decade ago. Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified centralized democracy.”

Biden however, acknowledged that the collapse of the country was particularly difficult ‘for anyone who spent time on the ground working to support the Afghan people, and for those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan,’ even as he admitted that was not enough to continue a fight that likely would have cost more American lives.

“We will continue to push for regional diplomacy engagement to prevent violence and instability, and will continue to speak out for the basic rights of Afghan people, of women and girls.

“I’ve been clear, human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments.

“We’ve made it clear to the Taliban — If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operations, the U.S. response will be swift and forceful. We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary.

“And once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military withdrawal and America’s longest war. After 20 long years of bloodshed, what we’re seeing now is sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable and secure Afghanistan,” Biden said.

Speaking earlier, Saturday, before the collapse of the Afghanistan government, Biden had also justified the pullout of American troops from the country, saying: “I am the fourth president to take office in light of the presence of American forces in Afghanistan. I will not bequeath this war to a fifth president.”

Corroborating Biden’s position, U.S Pentagon spokesperson, John Kirby, said the Afghanistan had everything they needed to confront the Taliban but failed or refused to use it.

“This is a moment for Afghans to unite, a moment for Afghan national security and defense forces and their political leaders. So in other words, it’s up to the Afghans alone to figure this out.

“They (Afghanistan Armed Forces) have greater numbers. They have an air force – a capable air force which by the way is flying more airstrikes than we are, every day. They have modern equipment. They have organizational structure. They have the benefit of the training we have provided them over twenty years. They have the material, the physical, the tangible advantages; it’s time now to use those advantages,” Kirby said.

More than 2,400 US troops have been killed during the conflict. About 12,000 are still stationed in the country. President Trump has promised to put an end to the conflict.

Nearly 3,500 members of the international coalition forces have died in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

The figures for Afghan civilians, militants and government forces are more difficult to quantify. In a February 2019 report, the UN said that more than 32,000 civilians had died. The Watson Institute at Brown University says 58,000 security personnel and 42,000 opposition combatants have been killed.