Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
President of the United States Joe Biden, on Monday (16/8) local time, accused the incident of power struggle Afghanistan by Taliban caused by the Asian country’s reluctance to fight militant groups.
Biden also strongly defended his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and argued that the mission of his troops in the country was never aimed at nation building.
“I stand by my decision,” Biden said. “After 20 years I learned the hard way that there is never a right time to withdraw US troops. That’s why we are still there.”
The reality: it came to light sooner than we anticipated. So what happened? Political leaders [Afghanistan] surrendered and fled the country. Afghan soldiers surrender, sometimes without any effort to fight,” he continued.
Biden also warned Taliban leaders not to interfere with the withdrawal of U.S. forces or face “destructive” forces.
The United States government previously admitted that they miscalculated so the Taliban could quickly seize Kabul and take control of the Afghan Presidential Palace on Sunday (15/8).
“The fact is that we see that (Afghan government) troops are unable to defend the country. And it’s happening faster than we thought,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN Sunday (15/8).
Last month, US President Joe Biden and senior officials in his administration believed the Taliban needed more time to take control of Afghanistan.
But apparently, just 10 days after the Taliban conquered the strategic city of Afghanistan, they managed to occupy Kabul. Starting from the withdrawal of troops in May, it took the group just two months to take over Afghanistan.
Now, the United States can only struggle to maintain the security of its citizens during the evacuation from Afghanistan. The United States has deployed a total of 6,000 troops to secure the evacuation of its citizens from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, on Monday (16/8), Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was known to have fled his own country and even declared the Taliban victory. He stated, in a statement on Facebook, that he fled to avoid bloodshed.
Ghani did not reveal his whereabouts. According to a source at the Afghan Interior Ministry, Ghani reportedly fled to Tajikistan.
“The Taliban have won the battle in terms of weapons and they have a responsibility to protect the honor, prosperity and dignity of our comrades,” Ghani said.
The Taliban had previously declared the war in Afghanistan was over after the group occupied the presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday (15/8).
“Today is a big day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen (Taliban). They are witnessing the fruits of their 20 years of efforts and sacrifices,” the spokesman for the Taliban’s Political Office, Mohammad Naeem, told Al-Jazeera, quoted by Reuters on Monday (16/16). /8).
It then said, “Thank you, God. The war in this country is over.”
Naeem later said that the Taliban would set up a new form of government in Afghanistan once they came to power. He said the Taliban wanted to build international relations and did not live in isolation.
“We have achieved what we were looking for, namely the freedom of our country, and the independence of our people,” Naeem said. “We won’t allow anyone to use our land to target anyone, and we don’t want to hurt anyone else.”
(Reuters/end)
– .
