Joe Biden announced that the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan will be completed by August 31

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the US military mission in Afghanistan “will end on August 31,” nearly 20 years after it began., and assured that the takeover of the country by the Taliban “is not” something inevitable.

Almost 20 years after the invasion following the September 11 attacks, US military forces have “achieved” their objectives in the country: to kill Osama bin Laden, to degrade Al-Qaida and to prevent further attacks against the United States, a Biden said in a speech to the White House.

“We end America’s longest warHe said. “The status quo is not an option,” he said of staying in the country. “I will not send another generation of Americans to fight in Afghanistan.”

When asked if a takeover by the Taliban, which is stepping up the military offensive in the country, was “inevitable”, the president replied: “No, it is not.

He also said that the Afghan authorities have “the capacity” to ensure the continuity of government.

To journalists who asked if his own intelligence services had foreseen the fall of the Afghan government, Biden replied categorically, “This is not true.”

“The likelihood of a united government in Afghanistan controlling the entire country is highly unlikelyHe said, however.

Biden promised that “American support for the Afghan people will continue” despite the troop withdrawal, already 90% complete.

“We did not go to Afghanistan to build a nation,” he said. “It is the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people to decide their future.”.

Biden also spoke directly to Afghans who collaborated with the U.S. military, who now risk retaliation for aiding foreign forces.

“There is a home for you in the United States, if you chooseHe said. “We will support you as you have supported us.”

In her daily press conference, the spokesperson for the presidency, Jen Psaki, recalled that the timetable for the end of the war in Afghanistan is maintained despite the upsurge in violence that the country has experienced in recent weeks.

“We are not going to have a moment of celebration, a moment of mission accomplished. It’s a 20-year war that was not won militarily», He underlined.

“The status quo was not an option,” Psaki said of the need to end the US presence on Afghan soil.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was already “over 90% complete”, which ends a process that began on May 1 after nearly two decades of war.

In addition, Washington said it has officially handed over seven former US bases to Afghan security forces and which evacuated the equivalent of nearly 1,000 equipment shipments on C-17 aircraft country, before the September deadline to complete the withdrawal.

The departure of US troops has raised concern in the Afghan government due to advances by Taliban insurgents in recent weeks, who have captured 100 of the country’s 402 districts, taking over 35% of the territory.

Launched in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Afghans and some 2,400 American soldiers, as well as a fortune in the White House.

Americans began to leave Afghanistan, leaving behind a deeply divided country that could fall back on the Taliban, determined to impose the same fundamentalist regime they applied when they were in power between 1996 and 2001.

What for the United States began as a simple mission to expel Al Qaeda from its sanctuaries has become all-out war against the Taliban. Despite its military might, Washington failed to win.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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