Much criticized, especially for his silence, since the Taliban took over power, Joe Biden spoke in an exclusive interview on the ABC channel. The American president maintains his position and does not regret the withdrawal of American troops from the country.
When the ABC reporter asks him if this is an intelligence failure, if mistakes have been made, Joe Biden stays right in his boots. The answer is no. For the US president, the rapid return of the Taliban to power is largely the responsibility of the Afghan authorities .
“ When you have the head of government taking the plane to flee, when you have the collapse of the Afghan troops that we have trained, that’s what happens, ” explains the American president.
On the situation at Kabul airport, Joe Biden believes that things are now under control, after inevitable chaos, according to him: ” The idea that we could have withdrawn without chaos ensuing, I do not not see how this is possible. ”
Maintain US soldiers beyond August 31 if necessary
While committing to continue the evacuations, Joe Biden admits to encountering more difficulties in evacuating the Afghan allies. But he does not rule out keeping US soldiers in place beyond the August 31 deadline, until all US nationals are evacuated.
” We will determine when the time comes who is still there ,” the US president said in an excerpt from the interview broadcast by ABC television. ” If there are still American citizens, we will stay to bring them out “, he added, without specifying the American intentions concerning the Afghans who would not have managed to reach the airport of Kabul from here. the.
The operation to evacuate the thousands of American and Afghan civilians, who are thronging around Kabul airport in an attempt to flee the country after the return to power of the Taliban, depends entirely on the goodwill of the insurgents. However, the State Department accused them on Wednesday of breaking their promises by allowing foreigners to leave the country, but not Afghans.
Joe Biden has been widely criticized since the Taliban’s meteoric takeover in Afghanistan For the American President, Joe Biden, much criticized since the meteoric takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan, it was impossible to withdraw the American troops without a form of “chaos” in the country, he declared in an excerpt from interview broadcast this Wednesday by the ABC channel. At a time when Washington accuses the Taliban of not keeping their promise to leave free access to Kabul ai
For the American President, Joe Biden, much criticized since the meteoric takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan, it was impossible to withdraw the American troops without a form of “chaos” in the country, he declared in an excerpt from interview broadcast this Wednesday by the ABC channel.
At a time when Washington accuses the Taliban of not keeping their promise to leave free access to Kabul airport to all those who want to flee, the American president has also admitted to encounter “more difficulties” in evacuating the Afghans. than Americans.
The idea “that in a way there was a way out without chaos ensuing, I do not see how that is possible”, he hammered.
No “failure” for Joe Biden
In this excerpt, the journalist of the American channel George Stephanopoulos evokes the images of hundreds of passengers crammed into an American C-17 plane and those of “Afghans falling” from a plane, in reference to a video appearing to show bodies aired Monday.
Amid desperate scenes at the Kabul airport where American forces are racing against the clock to evacuate tens of thousands of people, Biden stood by his decision to end the 20-year US war in Afghanistan.
“The idea that somehow there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden said in an ABC News television interview.
The Biden administration had long promised an “orderly drawdown” of America’s longest war, with the president saying US forces no longer have any national interest in fighting in a protracted conflict.
Biden, in the ABC interview, said that he hoped the thousands of US troops sent back to Afghanistan for the evacuations would be out by August 31, the deadline he set to end the long-time war.
But for the first time, he said they could stay longer, adding: “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out.”
The president, who has acknowledged that he was stunned by the swift collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, ordered the takeover of the Kabul airport to run evacuations.