For Biden, the fault of the Afghans | The US president washed his hands of the crisis

From Washington, DC

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, footage shows chaotic scenes in the capital Kabul: people rushing to the airport to leave, a crowd trying to board a military plane about to take off, people falling into the void after hooking on to the landing gear. So far, there are at least seven confirmed deaths. For the President of the United States, Joe Biden, all of these events are not the responsibility of the North American country, but of Afghanistan itself. From their leaders, they fled. From the local army, which has not learned what it has been taught after twenty years. Afghans themselves who he said did not want to be evacuated until now. On Monday, in his first public appearance since the collapse over the weekend, the president barely gave in to any of the questions he faces these days and acknowledged: “It has grown more faster than we expected “.

Biden reappeared in the White House after spending the weekend at Camp David, the rest home for US presidents. He has had it pushed by a barrage of criticism ranging from Donald Trump claiming that, of course, he would have done it in a different way, to some Democrats who criticize him for not evacuating people earlier.

“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with a clear objective: to catch those who attacked us on September 11, 2001 and to ensure that Al Qaeda cannot use Afghanistan as a base to attack us. new. We did it about ten years ago ”, say biden this monday as he began his speech from the East Room of the White House. In his statements, the president defended his decision to uphold the deal Trump made with the Taliban in 2020 and withdraw the troops left in the Asian country. “The intention of our mission was never to build a nation, it was never to create a unified and centralized democracy,” he said.

Biden insisted that the sole purpose of military intervention in Afghanistan was to “prevent a terrorist attack” in the United States and that to stay was to “repeat the mistakes of the past.” He noted that he inherited the Trump deal and chose to pursue it because the other option was to fight the Taliban again and push the conflict into its “third decade.” Perhaps his only self-criticism was accepting that the return of the radical Islamist group had happened “faster” than his administration had estimated, although some US media reported that the White House had intelligence reports warning of a possible immediate collapse. However, he argued that the result was Afghanistan’s responsibility: “The Afghan leadership surrendered and fled the country. The army collapsed without wanting to fight ”.

For Biden, the United States gave the Asian country “all the tools it needed”, “paid the wages” and provided “air support.” “US troops cannot and should not wage a war and die in a war Afghan forces do not want to wage alone,” he noted.

The speech, which lasted less than 20 minutes, satisfied few. One of those who backed Biden was Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives. “It is crucial that the United States and the international community come together to protect the Afghan people, especially the women and girls who are most at risk. The Taliban must know that the world is watching them and will not tolerate their brutal treatment, ”he said in a statement.

On the Republicans side, of course, the critics are unanimous. Former presidential candidate Republican Senator Mitt Romney said Biden failed to “recognize its disastrous withdrawal” and argued that prioritizing campaign pledges over the lives of “men, women and children” is a “stain on the reputation” of the country. This seems to be the expression used by the opposition party to talk about the result in Afghanistan. “What we have seen is an absolute disaster, a stain on the reputation of the United States of America,” said fellow Republican Mitch McConnel, leader of the opposition bloc in the Senate.

But questions about how the final stage of the pullout unfolded, especially last week with the return of the Taliban, are not just coming from the Republican Party. More moderate in their criticisms, the Democrats point the finger at the lack of planning in the evacuation of the Americans, allies and Afghans who collaborated in the actions of the North American country. “We cannot abandon those who fought alongside us, who now face mortal danger from the Taliban seizure of power. We have a moral obligation to act immediately, ”said Delaware Senator Tom Carper.

“There is no way to hide it. The situation in Afghanistan is another embarrassment for this administration. Withdrawal was never going to be easy, but it wasn’t necessary ”, tweeted Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez. For his part, his Californian colleague Jackie Speier described the situation as “a crisis of incalculable proportions”.

However, Biden does not plan to back down or regret his decision. “I would rather receive criticism than pass it on to another president,” he replied in his speech on Monday. In addition, he said that from now on the United States will focus on evacuating its citizens on Afghan territory and its allies as soon as possible. Then you will keep the decision to leave.