Amid chaos in Kabul, Biden defends exit from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON • US President Joe Biden has offered a fiery defence of his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, blaming the Afghan government's swift collapse and chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport on its military's refusal to stand and fight in the face of the Taleban advance.

Speaking to the American people on Monday, Mr Biden said he had no regrets about his decision to end the longest war in the United States' history, but lamented that two decades of support had failed to turn the Afghan military into a force capable of securing its own country.

"We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries. Provided for the maintenance of their airplanes," Mr Biden said.

"We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide was the will to fight for that future."

Mr Biden acknowledged that the Taleban victory had come much faster than the US had expected and that the withdrawal was "hard and messy".

As the fourth president to preside over the war in Afghanistan, though, he said that "the buck stops with me".

"How many more generations of America's daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghans - Afghanistan's civil war, when Afghan troops will not?"

Mr Biden spoke after dramatic images showed a frantic scramble to evacuate the US Embassy in Kabul as Taleban fighters advanced, drawing grim comparisons to America's retreat from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

Footage of people clinging to a hulking US military transport plane, even as it left the ground, quickly circulated around the world.

The Taleban cemented its control of Afghanistan on Monday, with reports that the militants were searching for people they considered collaborators of the Americans and the fallen government.

In Washington, the Pentagon said troops had secured the airport in Kabul. Officials said there would be 6,000 US troops conducting security at the airport and helping the evacuation.

In his speech, Mr Biden spent far more time defending his decision to depart from Afghanistan than the chaotic way it was carried out.

"Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country," he said, accusing the military of laying down its arms after two decades of US training and hundreds of billions of dollars in equipment and resources. "If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision."

Mr Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan President, escaped the country as the Taleban advanced. Mr Biden said Mr Ghani failed to live up to his promise that the Afghan military would defend the country after the last American forces departed.

"Mr Ghani insisted the Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong," Mr Biden said.

The political effects of the collapse of the Afghan government caught the White House off guard, even as howls of criticism poured in from lawmakers, Afghan activists and foreign policy experts.

On Capitol Hill, Mr Biden's speech stemmed some of the fallout. Democrats who had earlier criticised the President praised him for laying out the costs of America's lengthy involvement in the war.

"President Biden... made the difficult decision to not hand over this longest of American wars to a fifth president," said Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois.

"Had he walked away from the withdrawal agreement originally negotiated by President (Donald) Trump, Taleban attacks on US forces would have restarted and required yet another surge in US troops."

But Republicans placed the blame squarely on the President, with top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky calling the situation in Afghanistan a "monumental collapse" and Senator Mitt Romney of Utah accusing Mr Biden of having failed to acknowledge the "disastrous withdrawal".

With thousands of Afghans desperate to escape the Taleban's takeover, other countries are bracing themselves for a flood of refugees.

Five Mediterranean countries on the forefront of mass migration to Europe - Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain - have requested European Union-level talks today about how to respond. There are also concerns about refugees flowing to Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.

Thousands of Afghans with dual American citizenship remained unaccounted for. Mr Biden acknowledged criticism that the administration did not move quickly enough to evacuate Afghans who had served as interpreters and others, but also said the Afghan government had discouraged a mass evacuation, saying it would cause a "crisis of confidence" in its ability to fight the Taleban.

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington was in "constructive" talks with the Taleban as it sought to restore order at the Kabul airport and reach a political settlement.

The US wants to ensure the Taleban understands that any attempt to target the US will be met with a "swift and decisive response", Mr Price said on Monday, adding that any recognition of Afghanistan's new leaders would depend on the Taleban's willingness to create an inclusive government that involves women and others.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate discussions with counterparts in Britain, the EU, Turkey and Nato.

NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG