Afghanistan: Biden praises extraordinary success of evacuation mission

Joe Biden hailed Tuesday the extraordinary success of the mission to evacuate Americans and their allies from Afghanistan, in a solemn speech at the White House on the end of America's longest war.

 

No country has ever achieved anything like this in all of history, said the U.S. president. The extraordinary success of this mission is due to the incredible talent, bravery and selfless courage of the U.S. military, our diplomats and our intelligence professionals.

 

The United States remains committed to evacuating the remaining Americans in Afghanistan, whose number is estimated between 100 and 200, he assured. The U.S. president also defended his decision to leave Afghanistan by saying that the United States had no choice but departure or military escalation in the longest U.S. war, after his predecessor Donald Trump's agreement with the Taliban.

 

We were left with a simple choice. Either follow the commitment made by the previous administration, and leave Afghanistan, or say we are not leaving and send tens of thousands of troops back to war. The real choice was between leaving or escalating. I wasn't going to prolong this eternal war and I wasn't going to prolong the eternal withdrawal.

 

Joe Biden again warned the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K) group that the U.S. is not done with it, after the attack that killed about 100 Afghans, 13 U.S. servicemen and two Britons near Kabul airport last week.

 

To EI-K: we are not done with you, the U.S. president said in a solemn speech at the White House on the end of the war in Afghanistan. As commander-in-chief, I firmly believe that the best path to protecting our security is through a tough, ruthless, focused, and precise strategy that tracks terror where it is today. Not where it was two decades ago.