Biden must defend the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan

Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said the military was looking into the relocation of Afghan translators and their families to US territories, US military installations outside the United States, and other countries outside of Afghanistan.

The war began two decades ago, when the president argued not to rebuild a distant nation, but to prevent the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and bring Osama bin Laden to justice. In essence, Mr. Biden said the longest war in U.S. history should have ended when bin Laden was killed a decade ago.

“We are not building a nation for Afghanistan,” he said. “It is right and responsible for the Afghan people to determine their future and how they want to run their country.”

The Democratic government in Kabul is under siege by a Taliban that has allowed tens of thousands of Afghan civilians displaced and rebel groups to seize most of the country. Biden offered his views.

He said a quick U.S. withdrawal was a matter of security.

“Once I made the decision to end the war, our military commanders advised me that we should move quickly to conduct the key elements of the draft,” Mr. Biden said. “In this context, speed protection.”

He said the U.S. mission to help defend the country would continue until August 31 in a limited reassurance effort to the Afghan government that the U.S. embassy and the country’s airport would have less than 1,000 troops, although most of the troops had already withdrawn.

At another time in the country’s history, Mr Biden’s speech and the eventual withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan may have shaken politics in the United States.