This is not like Saigon, insists top US official

IT IS not in the interest of the US to remain in Afghanistan, the nation’s top diplomat said yesterday.

The US has sought to defend its rapid withdrawal as it prepares to mark 20 years since the September 11 attacks – as the Taliban take power once more.

‘Remaining in Afghanistan for another one, five, ten years is not in the national interest,’ secretary of state Antony Blinken told CNN. ‘The fact of the matter is we’ve seen that force has been unable to defend the country and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated.’

In a press conference last month, president Joe Biden, who is pursuing a plan first announced by predecessor Donald Trump, insisted US personnel would not be seen fleeing their Kabul embassy in ways echoing the infamous withdrawal from Saigon in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War.

Mr Biden said: ‘The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.’

As helicopters did evacuate US staff yesterday, Mr Blinken tried to dismiss any parallels. He said: ‘This is not Saigon. We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission, and that mission was to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. And we have succeeded. The objective that we set – bringing those that attacked us to justice, making sure that they couldn’t attack us again from Afghanistan – we’ve succeeded in that mission.’