Biden's speech on the withdrawal: America's new world

He drummed his fingers on his lectern, raised his voice, and then went very quiet again: Joe Biden gave an emotional speech on Tuesday about the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The day before, the last American soldier had left the country.

Biden said that this ended the twenty-year war that had no longer served any political purpose.

The war in the Hindu Kush was the longest military conflict the United States has ever fought, killing more than 2,300 American service members and tens of thousands of civilians. The president spoke in the afternoon, East Coast American time, rather than prime time that evening. He again justified in detail his decision not to extend the deadline for the withdrawal. "I didn't intend to prolong this endless war, nor did I intend to drag the trigger indefinitely," Biden said. "I take responsibility for the decision."

Regarding the criticism of the chaotic evacuation mission of the past few weeks, he said: “The bottom line is that there is no evacuation in the final phase of a war that does not have to deal with such complexities, challenges and threats as we have encountered - none. “Anyone who is at war for a third decade must explain what the Americans' national interest is in it, demanded Biden.

Goal achieved?

The original goal of the war in Afghanistan was achieved when terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed and Al-Qaeda was rendered harmless.

The president also went into the "deal" with the Taliban that his predecessor Donald Trump had made and according to which the Americans should have withdrawn last May.

Without naming Trump, Biden said the deal only left him with the choice of sticking to it or sending more soldiers to Afghanistan.

"That was the choice, the actual choice, between withdrawing or escalating," said the president.

He reiterated that the evacuation of more than 123,000 people since July had been a great achievement.

Biden admitted that there should still be between one hundred and two hundred Americans in Afghanistan.

“There is no deadline for these remaining Americans,” he said.

If these citizens wanted to leave the country, that would be made possible.

Most of them have dual citizenship and stayed for family reasons.

Biden also turned against demands to remain present in Afghanistan with a smaller force.

There is no such thing as a low-risk or cheap war, said the president.

The now so much criticized withdrawal actually shows his care for the troops - many people did not realize the real costs of the war.

"I don't think enough people understand how much we have asked of the one percent of the people in this country who wear this uniform and who are willing to risk their lives to defend our nation," Biden said, recalling that an average of eighteen American veterans kill themselves every day.

He did not mean this as an anti-militarist plea, but made it clear that the Americans could now concentrate more on other opponents.

China and Russia in focus

With his speech, however, Biden seemed to give up the goal of building a state through military operations, which had so often guided American politics under the heading of building democracy.

You are ending an "era of great military operations to change other countries," said Biden.

Instead, it is about learning from mistakes and focusing on clearly defined goals.

International terrorism is spreading in a way that cannot be combated by a military presence in a single country like Afghanistan, the president said. In addition, China and Russia are opponents with whom they compete - and who “want nothing more” than to see the Americans occupied with Afghanistan for another decade. The world has changed, said the President - today it is a “new world” that demands new answers.

You can fight terrorism and new threats at the same time. In Afghanistan, America ultimately has an interest in ensuring that terrorist attacks like the one on September 11, 2001, which once started the war, could never again be launched from there. Terrorist groups such as the Afghan branch of the terrorist militia Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Kabul last week, will continue to be fought. Biden became emotional when he assured the Americans that they would not forgive or forget, but "hunt to the end of the world" ISIS, which killed thirteen American soldiers and more than 150 Afghans.

Biden's speech was largely free of self-criticism.

Journalists then asked his spokeswoman Jen Psaki what mistakes the president saw in his own actions in Afghanistan.

Psaki said that everyone involved expected the Afghan military to fight harder against the Taliban.

Many Republicans, who reminded Biden of Trump's "deal" with the Taliban, insisted that the withdrawal in this form was a disaster.

Minority parliamentary group leader Kevin McCarthy said he “never dreamed” that an American president would one day withdraw all soldiers from a country without having evacuated all compatriots.

"What's the plan to get the Americans out?" McCarthy wanted to know.

Ben Sasse, Republican Senator from Nebraska, called Biden's self-praise "unrealistic". By leaving Americans behind, the president broke the promise to his own citizens, but kept the promise to the Taliban to leave on August 31st.