Afghanistan: Joe Biden defends the withdrawal of American troops and threatens the Taliban
US President Joe Biden August 16, 2021 at the White House in Washington.
AP - Evan Vucci
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
In a speech, Monday, August 16, the President of the United States assumed the decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, a country that has fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
This fall happened "
faster
" than he had expected.
But Joe Biden believes that the Afghans did not seize their chance to "
determine their own future
".
And he does not rule out intervention against the Taliban "
if necessary
".
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A few hours
after Emmanuel Macron
, Joe Biden spoke publicly in his turn on Monday on the
situation in Afghanistan
, where the Taliban took back power in a flash. Started under Barack Obama and then Donald Trump, the withdrawal of American troops accelerated from April 2021. And with the rapid progression of the Taliban until the fall of Kabul, the current tenant of the White House
does not escape not to critics
.
From Washington, Joe Biden "
firmly defended
" this withdrawal. “
After 20 years, I reluctantly learned that there is never a good time to withdraw US forces
,” he said. And to recall: "
Our mission in Afghanistan was never to build a nation
" The objective of the United States was "
to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil
", after the events of
September 11, 2001
.
We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11, 2001 — and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again.
We did that — a decade ago.
Our mission was never supposed to be nation building.
- President Biden (@POTUS) August 16, 2021
According to Biden, Afghans did not seize their chance to "determine their own future"
Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani on the run
, the Taliban quickly regained control of the country. Afghanistan has fallen into their hands "
faster than expected
", admitted the US president, who grazes the Afghan army: according to him, the United States has given the Afghan soldiers "
all the options to determine their own future
”and fight the Taliban. "
US forces cannot, and should not, wage a war and die for a war when the Afghan forces are unwilling to fight for themselves,
" he said.
Joe Biden nevertheless wants to be firm towards the Taliban: the Americans will always defend "
the women and the young girls
", and they will carry out anti-terrorist actions "
if necessary
".
While the US military still controls Kabul airport, a clear warning is being issued: if the Taliban disrupt evacuation operations, the US response will be "
swift and powerful
", with "
devastating
use
of force if necessary
”.
On Monday, US soldiers killed two men brandishing weapons at Hamid-Karzai airport.
(With AFP)
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Afghanistan
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Joe biden
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