US military's mission in Afghanistan to end on August 31, announces Joe Biden

The United States military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31, said US President Joe Biden on July 8 as the Afghan military tackled to control the surge of Taliban on the ground and has already taken over the control of provincial capital. As the extremist group launches one of the most brazen assaults in Afghanistan since the US ramped up its withdrawal from the war-stricken country, Biden said that nearly two decades after the 9/11 terror attacks, the US military has achieved its goals in the country. In a White House speech on Thursday, Biden announced that instead of ending the US mission by September 11, it would end a few days before that.

US President said, “When I announced our drawdown in April, I said we would be out by September, and we’re on track to meet that target. Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31st.  The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart.”

“Our military commanders advised me that once I made the decision to end the war, we needed to move swiftly to conduct the main elements of the drawdown.  And in this context, speed is safety...We’re ending America’s longest war, but we’ll always, always honour the bravery of the American patriots who served in it,” he added.

Biden also noted that the United States could not afford to “remain tethered to policies created to respond to a world as it was 20 years ago” while adding, “We need to meet the threats where they are today." US President elaborated that the United States military “did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.  And it’s the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.”

Biden says Taliban rise ‘not inevitable’

Further, on Thursday, Biden backed the decision of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and said that it was “not inevitable” that Kabul would fall to the Taliban as the extremist group rapidly gains on the ground. However, he also confessed that after nearly two decades of American forces tackling the Taliban in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, it was “highly unlikely” that Kabul would have been able to control the entire country. 

When asked if the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is now inevitable since US troops are leaving the ground, Biden said, “the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped...as well-equipped as any army in the world...and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban.  It is not inevitable.”

IMAGE: AP