Escalated faster than expected – VG

– The truth is that this developed faster than we had expected, the president said in a speech to the nation on Monday night Norwegian time where he defended the withdrawal of American forces that have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years.

– So what happened? Afghanistan’s political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without even trying to fight.

Biden further said that Afghanistan’s rapid fall showed that “another year, five more years or another 20 years” with a US military presence would not have helped and that it would never be a good time to withdraw US forces.

– American forces can not and should not fight a war and die in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.

– We gave them all chances

Biden pointed out that they have trained and equipped an Afghan force of as many as 300,000 men, paid their salaries and maintained their air force.

– We gave them all chances to decide on their own future. What we could not give them was the will to fight for that future, Biden said.

Pictures and videos from Kabul airport on Monday showed people fighting to get out of the country after the Taliban captured the capital. People ran after planes which was about to take off, and at least seven people are so far dead in the chaos, according to the news agency AP.

– The events we see now are unfortunately proof that no military force, regardless of size, would ever give us a stable, united and secure Afghanistan – known in history as the cemetery of the empires. What is happening now could easily have happened five years ago or 15 years in the future, Biden said, emphasizing that nation building was never America’s goal.

“I strongly believe in this: It is wrong to order American troops to step up their efforts when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not do so,” Biden said.

He said the goal for the United States in Afghanistan was always to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States, which was accomplished when Osama bin Laden was assassinated.

The president stated that the United States will act quickly in Afghanistan if necessary to prevent terrorist acts.

Also read: Comment: Kabul’s fall will haunt Biden

– This stops with me

Biden said he was faced with a choice between sticking to the agreement reached to withdraw his forces and sending thousands of troops back to Afghanistan for a third decade of war.

– How many more Americans would then die, he asked.

But after the war continued under four presidents, he said he had no intention of passing an endless war like the Afghanistan war on to a fifth president.

– This stops with me, he stated.

But Biden promised he would continue to focus on women and children in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

– We will continue to talk about the fundamental rights of the Afghan people, of women and children, in line with the fact that human rights are always a guiding principle of American policy.

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