President Joe Biden’s remarks about the drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 20 years won’t be celebratory, or include a George W. Bush-like “mission accomplished moment,” as the Taliban strengthen their grip on the war-torn country.
Biden will instead explain his decision to pull out all U.S. military personnel and equipment before Sept. 11, according to press secretary Jen Psaki. Instead, the president’s speech will outline “the security challenges he inherited in Afghanistan,” she said.
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“The status quo was not sustainable,” she told reporters Thursday.
Biden had considered national security interests as greater threats are now being posed from places such as Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, rather than Afghanistan, Psaki said.
“He is not going to ask another generation of kids to go and serve in Afghanistan in a war he does not think can be won militarily,” she added. She went on to decline to “get into a hypothetical” when asked if Biden would deploy service members to Afghanistan in the future if conditions deteriorated further.
Psaki insisted the United States “did exactly what we intended to do” in Afghanistan, including seeking retribution for al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks. But when pressed on whether Biden believed the decadeslong effort had been worth it, she repeated that he would not “give a grade.”
Biden’s speech Thursday coincides with an announcement the U.S. had dispatched 1.4 million Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to Afghanistan. His administration is also accelerating special visa applications for “Afghan allies” like interpreters. Psaki said the president was working to fly applicants to neutral countries by August as the U.S. continues to provide diplomatic and humanitarian support.
U.S. forces left Bagram Airfield this month. The air base was once the headquarters for the Afghanistan operation. Yet about 650 troops will remain in the country past the fall deadline. Most of those service members will be stationed at the U.S. Embassy in nearby Kabul.
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The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has exacerbated a power vacuum in the country. Experts predict the Afghan government will be usurped by the Taliban within six to 12 months.
