Cost of war too much to shoulder, Biden says
Afghanistan exit ends ‘remaking nations’
WASHINGTON • Joe Biden said ending the war in Afghanistan marked the end of the era of America “remaking nations.”
The U.S. president indicated a retreat in the United States’ role as the world policeman as he offered a defiant justification for his decision to pull out.
Biden said the cost of the war had been too high in terms of lives and money.
In an address to the nation from the White House Tuesday he said: “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.
“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit.”
He added: “Yes, the American people should hear this. Three-hundred million dollars a day for two decades. What have we lost as consequences in terms of opportunities? I refuse to continue a war that was no longer in the vital national interests of our people.”
Biden said 800,000 Americans had served in Afghanistan. “We’ve been a nation too long at war,” he said.
The president attacked critics who said America could have stayed in Afghanistan with a small military presence. He said: “There is nothing ‘low grade’ or ‘low risk’ about any war.”
Biden took responsibility for the U.S. evacuation, saying it was the best available option after a leading Republican foe described it as a self-inflicted wound.
Earlier in the day, the Taliban celebrated their victory over the United States, firing guns into the air, parading coffins draped in U.S. and NATO flags and setting about enforcing their rule after the last U.S. troops withdrew.
In his first remarks since the final pullout, Biden said 90 per cent of Americans who wanted to leave were able to do so.
“I take responsibility,” he said, adding that the United States was far from done with Afghanistan and, in particular, with Islamic State adherents in the country.
The Taliban now control more territory than when they last ruled before they were ousted in America’s longest war, which took the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans, and cost some $2 trillion.
More than 123,000 were evacuated from Kabul in a massive but chaotic airlift by the United States and its allies over the past two weeks, but many of those who helped Western nations during the war were left behind.
U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell said Americans had been abandoned behind enemy lines.
“This was a disgraceful and disastrous departure that will allow the Taliban and al Qaeda to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by having complete control of Afghanistan,” he said.