Afghanistan will not be the Vietnam of my youth. Joe Biden, the American president, did not mince words this Monday evening to justify his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. And this despite the current crisis. “I am very sad about what is happening [aujourd’hui en Afghanistan], but I do not regret my decision to withdraw and withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. This is not our war. It is not in our interest or that of our security ”.
The American president returned to recent weeks and his decision “to carry out the plan which had been negotiated by the previous administration while assuming the consequences and the risks of this decision and in particular the fall of Kabul”. He immediately recognized that Afghanistan had fallen “faster than expected” to the Taliban.
“But the objectives of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 were very clear: to find those who attacked us on September 11, 2001,” said the American president. “We have succeeded in putting an end to Al-Qaida in Afghanistan,” he insisted.
The terrorist threat has spread around the world
The United States did not aim to “build a nation” in Afghanistan, but to protect itself from terrorism, he recalled.
“Today terrorist threats have spread to Syria, Iraq, Somalia. These threats require that we deploy more resources in these countries, not that we spend more millions of dollars in Afghanistan ”.
Afghan power failed to secure its power
“We gave Afghanistan all the possibilities to secure their future, but we couldn’t do more,” he also said.
“If the government was not able to negotiate for the future of the country and defend their people today, it would not have been able to do so in a few years either. It was not a question of time ”.
Afghanistan will not be the Vietnam of my youth
“I worked on the Afghan file for years: I went there, I spoke with people, I met the troops. I figured out what was possible and what wasn’t, Biden said in a more personal tone before moving forward: Now we’re going to focus on what’s possible. We will defend the rights of women and girls, we will fight for education, but we will no longer be there militarily ”.
“This will end America’s longest war and despite all the blood that has been shed, we have to accept the fact that Afghanistan has not become a stable country as a result of our intervention.”
The United States, which has deployed some 6,000 troops to secure the evacuation of tens of thousands of Americans and Afghans and to ensure the security of Kabul airport, will in no way compromise the safety of its nationals. also recalled Joe Biden this Monday evening, promising the firmest response possible if ever the Taliban attacked American nationals.