THEY’RE COMING HOME
After 20 years in Afghanistan...
President Biden announced Wednesday that he’s pulling all remaining American troops out of Afghanistan this year, declaring there’s no longer a need for military involvement in the wartorn country nearly 20 years after the U.S. invasion in response to the 9/11 attacks.
The troops, which currently number about 2,500, will begin withdrawing May 1, Biden said in the little-used Treaty Room of the White House, where President George W. Bush first announced the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.
By this Sept. 11 — the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in downtown Manhattan and two other sites— all U.S. forces will have exited Afghanistan, marking the end of the longest war in American history, Biden promised. “It is time to end the forever war,” he said.
U.S. involvement in Afghanistan has long been a quagmire complicated by concerns that a full American pullout could create room for a resurgence of the Taliban militia and Al Qaeda, the terrorist group once led by Osama Bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 attacks.
But Biden challenged that premise, which is advocated by both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“When will it be the right moment to leave? One more year? Two more years? 10 more years? Ten, 20, 30 billion dollars more over the trillion we’ve already spent?” Biden said. “That’s how we got here.”
Biden also stressed that the U.S. will remain involved in Afghanistan even if American forces pull back.
“Our diplomatic and humanitarian work will continue,” he said. “We will keep providing assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Along with our partners, we are training and equipping nearly 300,000 personnel. And they continue to fight valiantly on behalf of their country and defend the Afghan people.”
After his speech, Biden traveled across the Potomac River to visit Arlington Cemetery’s Section 60, the burial grounds for recent American war dead, mostly from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Look at them all,” he told reporters, turning to rows of white tombstones.
More than 2,300 U.S. service members have died in the war in Afghanistan. Thousands more have been wounded.
In picking May 1 as the start date for the U.S. withdrawal, Biden is trying to make at least partially good on a peace deal that former President Donald Trump’s administration reached with Taliban leaders last year.
However, the Trump deal required all U.S. forces to be gone before May 1.
Taliban leaders, whose willingness to provide a safe haven for Bin Laden and Al Qaeda sparked the 2001 invasion, have threatened to renew attacks on American and allied troops if they don’t leave by the May 1 deadline.
It’s unclear how viable the Taliban threat is, but Biden affirmed he won’t hold back if American forces are attacked.
“If they attack us as we draw down, we will defend ourselves and our partners with all the tools at our disposal,” he said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani voiced support for Biden’s plan and vowed that his country’s “proud security and defense forces are fully capable of defending its people.”
“We will work with our U.S. partners to ensure a smooth transition,” Ghani said in a statement after speaking to Biden on the phone Wednesday morning.
A major concern among foreign policy hawks in Congress is that the Taliban will attempt to overthrow Afghanistan’s volatile government and reverse decades of gains on democracy, women’s rights and other issues if U.S. forces leave.
“While I certainly share the desire to disengage militarily from Afghanistan, withdrawing all U.S. troops by September still comes with significant risks,” said Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s national security panel. “Under current conditions, the potential Taliban overthrow of the Afghan government remains a strong possibility. Civil war would seem a virtual certainty.” Republicans were less polite. “A full withdrawal from Afghanistan is dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.