U.S. President Joe Biden discusses his ‘Construct Again Higher’ agenda and administration efforts to “decrease prescription drug costs” throughout a speech within the East Room on the White Home in Washington, August 12, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Saturday that he had accredited further navy forces to go to Kabul to assist safely draw down the American embassy and take away personnel from Afghanistan.
In a prolonged assertion, Biden defended his resolution to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, arguing that Afghan forces needed to battle again towards Taliban fighters sweeping by means of the nation.
“Primarily based on the suggestions of our diplomatic, navy and intelligence groups, I’ve approved the deployment of roughly 5,000 U.S. troops to ensure we will have an orderly and protected drawdown of U.S. personnel and different allied personnel,” Biden stated.
A U.S. protection official, talking on situation of anonymity, stated of the 5,000 Biden introduced, 4,000 have been already beforehand introduced. About 1,000 have been newly accredited and could be from the 82nd Airborne Division.
Biden stated his administration had informed Taliban officers in Qatar that any motion that put U.S. personnel in danger “might be met with a swift and powerful U.S. navy response.”
However he additionally stated an indefinite U.S. navy presence was not an possibility.
“Yet one more yr, or 5 extra years, of U.S. navy presence wouldn’t have made a distinction if the Afghan navy can not or is not going to maintain its personal nation. And an countless American presence in the midst of one other nation’s civil battle was not acceptable to me,” Biden added.
The troops can even help the evacuation of some Afghans going by means of a particular visa program.
The State Division has reached out to advocates to request names of Afghans in Kabul who’ve labored with the Individuals and must be evacuated, two sources accustomed to the matter stated. The record might embody journalists and human rights activists.
Biden has set a proper finish to the U.S. navy mission in Afghanistan for Aug. 31 as he appears to be like to disengage from a battle that began after al Qaeda attacked the USA on Sept. 11, 2001.
Biden’s transfer on Saturday got here amid rising stress to regulate a withdrawal plan that’s producing a few of the harshest criticism of his six months in workplace.
A Twitter publish from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham mirrored a few of the criticism: “If President Biden really has no regrets about his resolution to withdraw, then he’s disconnected from actuality with regards to Afghanistan.”
The Taliban have swept by means of a lot of Afghanistan, capturing a serious metropolis in northern Afghanistan on Saturday and drawing nearer to Kabul, the place Western international locations scrambled to evacuate their residents from the capital.
