Biden: Troops to remain as long as needed to evacuate Americans
President Joe Biden said Wednesday in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that U.S. troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 if necessary to evacuate any remaining Americans who wish to leave the country.
“If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Mr. Biden said.
The United States and other countries operated evacuation flights from Afghanistan into Wednesday, though not all those seeking to leave the country were able to reach Kabul’s international airport. The Taliban erected checkpoints throughout the capital and near the airport’s entrance, beating some Afghans who attempted to cross and intimidating others, according to reports and an eyewitness account. In one case, a former interpreter for the Australian army was shot by a Taliban fighter as many Afghans crowded at the airport gates.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said all U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of August. But the swift Taliban takeover this week caused a chaotic rush to evacuate foreign nationals and their Afghan allies. Estimates place the number of Americans in Afghanistan between 11,000 and 15,000. Asked whether some troops might stay beyond the end of the month if necessary to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies, Mr. Biden said: “It depends on where they are and whether we can ramp these numbers up to five [thousand] to 7,000 a day coming out. If that’s the case, they’ll all be out.”
Mr. Biden’s response to whether that applied to Afghans appeared more
equivocal. He said an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 Afghan allies of the United States — including people who helped U.S. efforts and their families — remain in the country.
“The commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out and everyone who should come out,” he said. “And that’s the objective. That’s what we’re doing now. That’s the path we’re on. And I think we’ll get there.”
“Americans should understand that we’re going to try to get it done before Aug. 31,” he said.
If that doesn’t happen, however, Mr. Biden made clear the decision to keep troops in the country would hinge on whether American citizens remained there.
Mr. Biden defended his handling of the U.S. withdrawal, arguing there was no way to pull out of the country without “chaos ensuing.” “The idea that, somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Mr. Biden told Mr. Stephanopoulos in his first interview since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, according to an excerpt released by ABC.
The United States has evacuated about 5,000 people from Kabul, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday. The situation at the airport is stable, Gen. Milley said. But earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned that the U.S. government “cannot ensure safe passage” to the airport. The Taliban has erected checkpoints throughout the capital and beat and harassed some Afghans who had attempted to reach the airport.
The State Department said Wednesday it is negotiating with the Taliban to ensure safe passage to the airport.
Meanwhile, Gen. Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday defended the military’s efforts to secure the Kabul airport and deflected questions about recent decisions at their first public appearance since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
“There will be plenty of time for postmortems on this topic,” Gen. Milley said. “But right now is not that time.”
“Right now, there are troops at risk, and we in the United States military fully intend to successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan,” he added.
“They are our priority number one.”
Gen. Milley said the United States will get out as many Afghans who supported the U.S. military “as possible,” a tacit acknowledgment the military knows it may not evacuate them all.