'I Stand Squarely Behind My Decision': President Joe Biden Defends Decision to Pull Troops Out of Afghanistan
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Updated
Aug 17, 2021
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President Joe Biden broke his silence on the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Monday, asserting during a news briefing that he made the right decision in pulling U.S. troops from the country.
“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden said plainly. “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 were still there. We were clear-eyed about the risks. We planned for every contingency,” he asserted. Biden did, however, note that while the government had planned for several outcomes following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, they had not anticipated the takeover happening this rapidly.
“The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” he said.
Biden then spoke on Afghani political leaders and military, asserting that Afghan leaders “gave up and fled the country” and the military crumbled, allowing for the expedited insurgency.
“If anything,” he asserted, “the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.”
“And here’s what I believe to my core,” Biden continued, “It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not. If 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.”
The president then addressed his critics, asking, “How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghans — 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?”
The president concluded his remarks by asserting that he “would rather take all that criticism than pass this decision on to another President of the United States — yet another one — a fifth one.”
He added, “I am President of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me.”
Biden has been facing mounting criticisms over his handling of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which, in part, led to a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
As Christian Headlines previously reported, a recent poll by The Trafalgar Group found that nearly 70 percent of all American voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of military actions in Afghanistan.
Related:
'Pray for the Christians in Afghanistan': Taliban Takeover Puts Church in Peril
5 Prayers to Lift Up for Afghanistan
Video courtesy: ©NBC News
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker/Staff
Kayla Koslosky is the former Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.
