Mr. Biden spoke from the White House on Monday afternoon after the collapse of the Afghan government to the Taliban.
Good afternoon.
I want to speak
today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, the developments that have
taken place in the last week and the steps we’re taking to address the rapidly
evolving events.
My national
security team and I have been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in
Afghanistan and moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to
respond to every contingency, including the rapid collapse we’re seeing now.
I’ll speak more
in a moment about the specific steps we’re taking. But I want to remind
everyone how we got here and what America’s interests are in Afghanistan.
We went to
Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on
Sept. 11, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from
which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded Al Qaeda and
Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we got him.
That was a decade
ago. Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been
nation-building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized
democracy. Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what
it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland.
I’ve argued for
many years that our mission should be narrowly focused on counterterrorism, not
counterinsurgency or nation-building. That’s why I opposed the surge when it
was proposed in 2009 when I was vice president. And that’s why as president I’m
adamant we focus on the threats we face today, in 2021, not yesterday’s
threats.
Today a terrorist
threat has metastasized well beyond Afghanistan. Al Shabab in Somalia, Al Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula, Al Nusra in Syria, ISIS attempting to create a
caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates in multiple countries
in Africa and Asia. These threats warrant our attention and our resources. We
conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in
multiple countries where we don’t have permanent military presence. If
necessary, we’ll do the same in Afghanistan. We’ve developed counterterrorism
over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on
the direct threats to the United States in the region, and act quickly and
decisively if needed.
When I came into
office, I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban.
Under his agreement, U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021,
just a little over three months after I took office. U.S. forces had already
drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces
to 2,500 troops in country. And the Taliban was at its strongest militarily
since 2001.
The choice I had
to make as your president was either to follow through on that agreement or be
prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring
fighting season. There would have been no cease-fire after May 1. There was no
agreement protecting our forces after May 1. There was no status quo of
stability without American casualties after May 1. There was only the cold
reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or
escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into
combat in Afghanistan, and lurching into the third decade of conflict.
I stand squarely
behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was
never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces. That’s why we’re still there. We
were cleareyed about the risks. We planned for every contingency. But I always
promised the American people that I will be straight with you.
The truth is,
this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. So what’s happened?
Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military
collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight. If anything, the developments of
the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan
now was the right decision.
American troops
cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan
forces are not willing to fight for themselves. We spent over a trillion
dollars. We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000
strong. Incredibly well equipped. A force larger in size than the militaries of
many of our NATO allies. We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their
salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force, something the
Taliban doesn’t have. Taliban does not have an air force. We provided close air
support. We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could
not provide them was the will to fight for that future.
There are some
very brave and capable Afghan special forces units and soldiers. But if
Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is
no chance that one year — one more year, five more years or 20 more years —
that U.S. military boots on the ground would have made any difference.
Here’s what I
believe to my core: It is wrong to order American troops to step up when
Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not. The political leaders of Afghanistan
were unable to come together for the good of their people, unable to negotiate
for the future of their country when the chips were down. They would never have
done so while U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan bearing the brunt of the
fighting for them. And our true strategic competitors, China and Russia, would
love nothing more than the United States to continue to funnel billions of
dollars in resources and attention into stabilizing Afghanistan indefinitely.
When I hosted
President Ghani and Chairman Abdullah at the White House in June, and again
when I spoke by phone to Ghani in July, we had very frank conversations. We
talked about how Afghanistan should prepare to fight their civil wars after the
U.S. military departed. To clean up the corruption in government so the
government could function for the Afghan people. We talked extensively about
the need for Afghan leaders to unite politically. They failed to do any of
that. I also urged them to engage in diplomacy, to seek a political settlement
with the Taliban. This advice was flatly refused. Mr. Ghani insisted the Afghan
forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong.
So I’m left again
to ask of those who argue that we should stay: How many more generations of
America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s
civil war when Afghan troops will not? How many more lives, American lives, is
it worth, how many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery?
I’m clear on my answer: I will not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past.
The mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in
the national interest of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in
a foreign country, of attempting to remake a country through the endless
military deployments of U.S. forces. Those are the mistakes we cannot continue
to repeat because we have significant vital interest in the world that we
cannot afford to ignore.
I also want to
acknowledge how painful this is to so many of us. The scenes that we’re seeing
in Afghanistan, they’re gut-wrenching, particularly for our veterans, our
diplomats, humanitarian workers — for anyone who has spent time on the ground
working to support the Afghan people. For those who have lost loved ones in
Afghanistan, and for Americans who have fought and served our country in
Afghanistan, this is deeply, deeply personal. It is for me as well.
I’ve worked on
these issues as long as anyone. I’ve been throughout Afghanistan during this
war, while the war was going on, from Kabul to Kandahar, to the Kunar Valley.
I’ve traveled there on four different occasions. I’ve met with the people. I’ve
spoken with the leaders. I spent time with our troops, and I came to understand
firsthand what was and was not possible in Afghanistan. So now we’re focused on
what is possible.
We will continue
to support the Afghan people. We will lead with our diplomacy, our
international influence and our humanitarian aid. We’ll continue to push for
regional diplomacy and engagement to prevent violence and instability. We’ll
continue to speak out for the basic rights of the Afghan people, of women and
girls, just as we speak out all over the world.
I’ve been clear,
the human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery.
But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments. It’s with our
diplomacy, our economic tools and rallying the world to join us.
Let me lay out
the current mission in Afghanistan: I was asked to authorize, and I did, 6,000
U.S. troops to deploy to Afghanistan for the purpose of assisting in the
departure of U.S. and allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan, and to
evacuate our Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans to safety outside of
Afghanistan. Our troops are working to secure the airfield and ensure continued
operation on both the civilian and military flights. We’re taking over air
traffic control. We have safely shut down our embassy and transferred our
diplomats. Our diplomatic presence is now consolidated at the airport as well.
Over the coming
days we intend to transport out thousands of American citizens who have been
living and working in Afghanistan. We’ll also continue to support the safe
departure of civilian personnel — the civilian personnel of our allies who are
still serving in Afghanistan. Operation Allies Refuge, which I announced back
in July, has already moved 2,000 Afghans who are eligible for special
immigration visas and their families to the United States. In the coming days,
the U.S. military will provide assistance to move more S.I.V.-eligible Afghans
and their families out of Afghanistan.
We’re also
expanding refugee access to cover other vulnerable Afghans who work for our
embassy. U.S. nongovernmental organizations and Afghans who otherwise are a
great risk in U.S. news agencies — I know there are concerns about why we did
not begin evacuating Afghan civilians sooner. Part of the answer is some of the
Afghans did not want to leave earlier, still hopeful for their country. And
part of it because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from
organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering, as they said, a crisis of
confidence.
American troops
are performing this mission as professionally and as effectively as they always
do. But it is not without risks. As we carry out this departure, we have made
it clear to the Taliban: If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation,
the U.S. presence will be swift, and the response will be swift and forceful.
We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary. Our current
military mission is short on time, limited in scope and focused in its
objectives: Get our people and our allies as safely and quickly as possible.
And once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military
withdrawal. We will end America’s longest war after 20 long years of bloodshed.
The events we’re
seeing now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver
a stable, united, secure Afghanistan, as known in history as the graveyard of
empires. What’s happening now could just as easily happen five years ago or 15
years in the future. We have to be honest, our mission in Afghanistan made many
missteps over the past two decades.
I’m now the
fourth American president to preside over war in Afghanistan. Two Democrats and
two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president. I
will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time
in Afghanistan will make all the difference. Nor will I shrink from my share of
responsibility for where we are today and how we must move forward from here. I
am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me.
I’m deeply
saddened by the facts we now face. But I do not regret my decision to end
America’s war-fighting in Afghanistan and maintain a laser focus on our
counterterrorism mission, there and other parts of the world. Our mission to
degrade the terrorist threat of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and kill Osama bin
Laden was a success. Our decades-long effort to overcome centuries of history
and permanently change and remake Afghanistan was not, and I wrote and believed
it never could be.
I cannot and will
not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country’s civil war, taking
casualties, suffering life-shattering injuries, leaving families broken by
grief and loss. This is not in our national security interest. It is not what
the American people want. It is not what our troops who have sacrificed so much
over the past two decades deserve. I made a commitment to the American people
when I ran for president that I would bring America’s military involvement in
Afghanistan to an end. While it’s been hard and messy and, yes, far from
perfect, I’ve honored that commitment.
More importantly,
I made a commitment to the brave men and women who serve this nation that I
wasn’t going to ask them to continue to risk their lives in a military action
that should’ve ended long ago. Our leaders did that in Vietnam when I got here
as a young man. I will not do it in Afghanistan.
I know my decision
will be criticized. But I would rather take all that criticism than pass this
decision on to another president of the United States, yet another one, a fifth
one. Because it’s the right one, it’s the right decision for our people. The
right one for our brave service members who risked their lives serving our
nation. And it’s the right one for America.
Thank you. May
God protect our troops, our diplomats and all brave Americans serving in harm’s
way.