Announcement

**6KILLER** · 10-26-2009, 05:30 PM

14 Jewps killed in helicopter crashes in Afghanistan today

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...04,print.story

latimes.com

Helicopter crashes kill 14 Americans in Afghanistan
Two copters collide in midair. In a separate incident, a chopper goes down following a firefight with insurgents. Three U.S. civilians and 11 troops are killed.

By Laura King

5:05 AM PDT, October 26, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan

Eleven U.S. troops and three American law-enforcement officials were killed in two separate helicopter crashes today, one of the war's heaviest one-day losses for U.S. forces, military officials said.

The crashes involved a total of three choppers, two of which collided in midair in the south of the country, and a third that went down in the wake of a firefight in Afghanistan's west, according to the NATO force and American officials.

Hostile fire was ruled out in the midair collision, which killed a total of four American troops and injured two others, but the cause of the other crash was not immediately clear.

The Taliban claimed to have shot down a Western helicopter today in Afghanistan's northwest, but it was not clear whether that was the same incident the military described.

The surge in troop deaths comes less than two weeks before a runoff presidential election, which is expected to be a lightning rod for insurgent violence. It also comes as the Obama administration is weighing the reported request of its top commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, for a substantial troop increase.

The loss of life and aircraft pointed up the extent to which Western forces in Afghanistan are dependent on helicopters. In much of the country, terrain is extremely rough, distances long and roads all but impassable. Roadside bombs add to the danger of ground transport.

Weather did not appear initially to be a factor in either of the crashes, though snow, storm and winds will soon add to the dangers of helicopter flights, particularly in mountainous areas.

In initial statements, the military did not specify where the two crashes occurred other than by general region. There are large concentrations of U.S. troops in the south of Afghanistan, in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. NATO's second-biggest base is located at Kandahar airfield, outside the south's largest city.

Smaller numbers of American troops serve in the west of Afghanistan. The Taliban claim of responsibility said a chopper had been downed in Baghdis, a remote province in the northwest, but military officials declined to say whether the helicopter in question had gone down in that area.

The military did say that the crash came after a joint operation by U.S. and Afghan forces, which set off a clash with insurgents. In addition to those killed, 14 Afghans were reported injured in the downing of the helicopter.

The firefight broke out after American and Afghan forces searched a compound believed to harbor drug traffickers, the military said. The drug trade is a major source of revenue for the Taliban and other insurgents.

About a dozen militants were reported killed in that exchange of gunfire, the military said in a statement.

The role of the three American civilians who were killed in the crash that followed was not immediately clear, but indications were that they might have been involved in drug interdiction. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy, Caitlin Hayden, identified them as "members of the law-enforcement community" attached to the embassy.

Word of the helicopter crashes came as military officials disclosed the deaths of two American soldiers in separate attacks in Afghanistan's east.

That part of the country, bordering Pakistan's tribal areas, is also the scene of frequent fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents based in the tribal areas of Pakistan who cross into Afghanistan to carry out attacks.

laura.king@latimes.com

Copyright ? 2009, The Los Angeles Times

http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...=1112#post1112

**Librarian** · 08-16-2021, 07:38 PM

Scenes of deadly chaos unfold at Kabul airport after Taliban’s return

Scenes of deadly chaos unfold at Kabul airport after Taliban’s return

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...kabul-airport/
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3323#post23323
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3323#post23323

KABUL — The first full day of Taliban rule in Kabul on Monday saw a mad rush by thousands of Afghans on the city’s international airport, in a frantic, last-ditch effort to flee the country.

Hundreds of people ran alongside the wheels of a U.S. military aircraft as it attempted to take off Monday. Others climbed up the sides of the plane as it edged forward, engines roaring.

Some kept hold of the undercarriage even as the aircraft rose, and at least one person appeared to fall from a height during takeoff. One local Afghan news agency published images of a body that apparently landed on a Kabul rooftop.

At least seven people at the airport have been confirmed dead, the Associated Press reported.

The dire scenes illustrated the level of fear sweeping some parts of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover on the heels of the U.S. military withdrawal — a policy decision critics described as the hasty abandonment of a country to which American officials once pledged unflinching commitment.

“What has happened to us? Have we turned into animals?” said one man at the airport as he watched people elbow and kick on a narrow staircase for a seat on a plane that would take them abroad.

Like others in this report, the man spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The man shook his head in disbelief at his surroundings as well as at himself. He was still in the middle of the application process for an expedited U.S. visa. A return to Taliban rule was so concerning that he arrived at the airport with his family, bags packed but no visa and no ticket.

But in many parts of downtown Kabul, Monday passed largely peacefully, a sharp contrast to the airport chaos. Stores were largely shuttered, although a trickle of people were going about their business. Services such as banks and government offices were also closed.

Taliban fighters wove through traffic in pickup trucks bearing the group’s white flag. Some of the fighters set up checkpoints, others posed for photos at the Afghan capital’s most well-known landmarks.

On some streets it appeared that little had changed; women were out in colorful, fashionable clothing. Portraits of anti-Taliban hero Ahmed Shah Massoud were left undefiled, and Afghan national flags remained in place.

Occasionally, Taliban fighters broke up traffic jams by firing angrily in the air. And Kabul’s Green Zone — once home to the heart of Afghan government power — was under a complete lockdown, enforced by fighters, many of them perched on Humvees and other American-made armored vehicles.

“It’s fine, but also not,” said a taxi driver, half-laughing at the militants’ sudden appearance on Kabul’s streets. He has never lived under Taliban rule and said he doesn’t know what to expect of the fighters.

“It’s secure, peaceful, now, but these are Taliban,” he said, implying that they will continue to rule largely by force. Along the street a fighter on a motorcycle took selfies with a group of young men.

In public statements, the Taliban has sought to win the support of Afghan civilians, but in cities the militants have overrun, reports of mass executions and other human rights violations emerged not long after their takeover.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Monday that U.S. troops have come under fire at least twice at Kabul’s international airport, with preliminary reports that one American may have been wounded.

Kirby said that U.S. troops, working alongside some Turkish forces and other international troops, are working to secure the airfield and civilian side of the airport.

Separately, a U.S. official said the military was assessing the apparent deaths of two people who appeared to have fallen from the airborne C-17.

A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, indicated that the military is taking the video seriously. “That absolutely happened,” the official assessed.

Chaotic footage from Kabul airport was widely circulated on social media and by international news outlets, a stark visual representation of the devastating human impact of the end of a U.S. military campaign that now appeared to be a failure.

The scramble at Kabul airport has been exacerbated by embassies speeding up withdrawal timelines as the Taliban quickly advanced. The group doubled its territorial hold of the country in the space of three months and toppled Afghanistan’s elected government in a day.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Sunday to an unnamed neighboring nation. Kabul’s international airport was named after his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who released a video Sunday that showed he was still in Kabul.

In response to Monday’s events, the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority said Monday that all civilian flights in and out of the Kabul airport had been suspended and called on people to not travel to the airport.

The Pentagon and the State Department said in a joint statement Sunday night that about 6,000 troops were authorized to deploy to Afghanistan. But in a sign of how chaotic the situation is, Kirby said Monday that another infantry battalion of about 1,000 soldiers does not change that number, suggesting the previous number was too high.

About 2,500 U.S. troops were on the ground in Kabul as of Monday evening there, Kirby said.

“I don’t know what to do,” said a young Afghan woman also looking for a way out. She fears that Taliban forces will search her home, discover that she is living alone and punish her. Traditional Afghan society generally disapproves of men or women living on their own.

Like many Afghans, she had begun multiple applications for visas in recent months as Taliban gains quickened, but none came through in time. Now, many embassies are either significantly reducing staff or pulling out.

“Where can I go?” she asked.

.

**Senile Joe Biden** · 08-16-2021, 08:45 PM

Full text of Joe Biden’s speech on withdrawal from Afghanistan

Full text of Joe Biden’s speech on withdrawal from Afghanistan

President largely blamed Afghans themselves for their current predicament

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1903665.html
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3326#post23326
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3326#post23326

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 had been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and are moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every constituency, including any 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 September 11th, 2001, and make sure Al-Qaida could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack. Again. We did that. We severely degraded Al-Qaida in 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 interests 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 counter terrorism, 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. The terrorist threat has metastasized well beyond Afghanistan, El Shabaab in Somalia, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on the loose 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 counter-terrorism 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 counter-terrorism over their rising of 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, US forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1st, 2021, just a little over three months after I took office, US forces that were 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 ceasefire after May 1.

There was no agreement protecting our forces after May one, there was no status quo of stability without American casualties. After May one, there was only a 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, 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 US forces. That’s why we’re still there. We were clear-eyed about the risks we plan 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’s 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 US 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 that Taliban doesn’t have. The 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’s some very brave and capable Afghan special forces, units, and soldiers.

But 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 of US military boots in 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, are unable to negotiate for the future of their country. When the chips were down, they would never have done so while US 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 the president Ghani and chairman of 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 department, 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 event. I also urged them to engage in diplomacy, to seek a political settlement with the Taliban. This advice was flatly refused. Mr. Ghani insisted that 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 the fight Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will now? How many 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 is not in the national interest of the United States, nor is doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country or attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of US forces. Those are the mistakes we can not 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 for so many of us. The scenes 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, or those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan, and for Americans who have fought and served in the country, 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 Qunar valley. I’ve traveled there on four different occasions. I’ve met with the people. I’ve spoken to 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, 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 Afghan people, of women and girls, just as we speak out all over the world, I’ve been clear that 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. So with our diplomacy or economic tools and rallying the world to join us, well, let me lay out the current mission in Afghanistan.

I was asked to authorize and I did 6,000 us troops to deploy to Afghanistan for the purpose of assisting the departure of US 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 of both the civilian and military flights. We’re taking over our 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’ve 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 Afghanistan. Operation Allies Refugee, which I announced back in July, has already moved 2000 Afghans who are eligible for special immigration visas and their families to the United States.

In the coming days, the US military will provide assistance to move more SIV eligible Afghans and their families out of Afghanistan. We’re also expanding refugee access to cover other vulnerable Afghans who worked for our embassy, US non-governmental organizations and Afghans who otherwise are at great risk in US 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 the 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’ve made it clear to the Taliban that if they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the US presence will be swift, and the response will be swift and forceful. We would defend our people with devastating force if necessary in our current military mission, with shortened time, limited scope and focused on 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 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, you have to be honest. Our mission in Afghanistan has taken many missteps, 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 Afghanistan, and maintain a laser focus on our counter-terrorism missions 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 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, I said I’d 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 served this nation that I wasn’t going to ask them to continue to risk their lives in a military accident that should’ve have ended up 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 onto 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 have 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 the brave Americans serving in harm’s way.

**Senile Joe Biden** · 08-24-2021, 10:52 PM

I'm pulling out of Afghanistan within the week, cum-cum, cum-cum.

I'm pulling out of Afghanistan within the week, cum-cum, cum-cum.

The Tallyban told me so !!!

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts...ript-august-24
http://www.occidentaldissent.com/202...wal-by-aug-31/
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3362#post23362
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3362#post23362

President Joe Biden: (00:00)
Today the house representatives taken significant steps toward making historic investment that’s going to transform America, cut taxes for working families and position the American economy for long-term, long-term growth. When I became President, it was clear that we had to confront an immediate economic crisis. The most significant recession we’ve had since the Depression, or at least since Johnson, but that wasn’t going to be enough. We also had to make some long-term investments in Americans and America itself. The first thing we did was to write and pass the American Rescue Plan. And it’s working. Our economy has added 4 million jobs in my first six months in office. Economic growth is up to the fastest has been, the fastest rate in 40 years. And unemployment is coming down. Right now, our economic growth is leading the world’s advanced economies. But to win the future, we need to take the next step.

President Joe Biden: (01:05)
Today, the House of Representatives did just that. Today’s vote in the House, allowed them to consider my Build Back Better Agenda, a broad framework to make housing more affordable, bring down the cost of prescription drugs by giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for drugs, make elder care more affordable, provide two years of free universal high quality pre-K, and two years of free community college, provide clean energy tax credits, continue to give the middle-class families the well-deserved tax cut for daycare and healthcare that they deserve, allowing a lot of women to get back to work primarily, and provide significant monthly tax cuts for working families with children through the childcare tax credit. These investments are going to lower out-of-pocket expenses for families, and not just give them a little more breathing room. In addition, we’re going to make a long overdue much needed investments in basic hard infrastructure of this nation.

President Joe Biden: (02:05)
This scenario where we have broad bipartisan agreement to invest in our antiquated roads, highways, bridges, transit, drinking water systems, broadband, clean energy, environmental cleanup, and making our infrastructure more resilient to the climate crisis and so much more. And this is all paid for. Instead of giving every break in the world to corporations and CEOs. By the way, 55 of our largest companies in America pay $0 in federal taxes on more than $40 billion in profit last year. We can ask corporations and the very wealthy just to pay their fair share. They can still be very wealthy. They can still make a lot of money, but just begin to pay their fair share. So we can invest in making our country stronger and more competitive, create jobs and raise wages, and lift up the standard of living for everyone. The bottom line is in my view, we’re a step closer to truly investing in the American people, position our economy for long-term growth, and building an America that out competes the rest of the world.

President Joe Biden: (03:13)
My goal is to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not just the top down. And that’s we’re on our way of doing. Look, I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, who was masterful in our leadership on this, and Leader Horrier, and Whip Clyburn, and Chairman DeFazio, the entire House leadership team for the hard work, dedication, and determination to bring people together so we can make a difference in people’s lives. I also want to thank every Democrat in the House who worked so hard over the past few weeks to reach an agreement, and who supported the process for House consideration of the jobs and infrastructure plan, the Build Back Better Effort. There were differences, strong points of view. They’re always welcome. What is important is that we came together to advance our agenda. I think everyone who did it, was there.

President Joe Biden: (04:07)
Look, I also want to thank everyone who voted to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. It’s an act to restore and expand voting protections, to prevent voter suppression, and to screw the most sacred of American rights, the right to vote freely, the right to vote fairly, and the right to have your vote counted. The House was active. The Senate also has to join them to send this important bill to my desk. And the Senate has to move forward on the People’s Act, critical legislation to protect our democracy and the right to vote. We need both of those election bills. But let me now turn to Afghanistan. I’ve met this morning with my counterparts in the G7, as well as heads of the United Nations, NATO, and the European Union. I express my thanks for the solidarity we have seen, as we’ve stood up an unprecedented global effort. I updated our partners on the significant progress we’ve made in the past 10 days.

President Joe Biden: (05:13)
As of this afternoon, we’ve helped evacuate 70,700 people just since August the 14th, 75,900 people since the end of July. Just in the past 12 hours, other 19 U.S Military flights, 18 C17s and one C130 carrying approximately 6,400 evacuees, and 31 coalition flights carrying 5,600 people have left Kabul just in the last 12 hours. A total of 50 more flights, 12,000 more people, since we updated you this morning. These numbers are a testament to the efforts of our brave service women and men, to our diplomats on the ground and Kabul, and to our allies still standing with us. And we had a productive discussion. There were strong agreement among the leaders both about the evacuation mission underway, as well as a need to coordinate our approach to the Afghanistan as we move forward. First on evacuation, we agree that we will continue to close our close cooperation to get people out as efficiently and safely as possible.

President Joe Biden: (06:26)
We are currently on pace to finish by August the 31st. The sooner we can finish the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops, but the completion by August 31st depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate, allow access to the airport for those who we’re transporting out, and no disruptions to our operations. In addition, I’ve asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans to adjust the timetable should that become necessary. I’m determined to ensure that we complete our mission, this mission. I’m also mindful of the increasing risks that I’ve been briefed on, and the need to factor those risks in. They’re real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration. The longer we stay, starting with the acute and growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group known as ISIS-K, a ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, which is the sworn enemy of the Taliban as well.

President Joe Biden: (07:34)
Every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S and allied forces and innocent civilians. Additionally, thus far, the Taliban have been taking steps to work with us so we can get our people out, but it’s a tenuous situation. We’re already had some gun fighting breakout. We run a serious risk of it breaking down as time goes on. Second, the G7 leaders, and the leaders of the EU, NATO, and the UN all agreed that we will stand united and our approach to the Taliban. We agreed the legitimacy of any future government depends on the approach it now takes to uphold international obligations, including to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a base for terrorism. And we agree that none of us are going to take the Taliban’s word for it.

President Joe Biden: (08:34)
We’ll judge them by their actions, and we’ll stay in close coordination on any steps that we take moving forward in response to the Taliban’s behavior. At the same time, we renewed our humanitarian commitment to the Afghan people and supported a proposal by the Secretary General Guterres of the United Nations led international with unfettered humanitarian access in Afghanistan. Third, we talked about our mutual obligation to support refugees and evacuees currently fleeing Afghanistan. The United States will be a leader in these efforts, and we’ll look to the international community and to our partners to do the same. We’re already seeing our allies’ commitment. They’re bringing to their countries, the Afghans who served alongside their forces as translators, or in their embassies, just as we’re bringing you the United States those Afghans who worked alongside our forces and diplomats. We’re continuing that effort.

President Joe Biden: (09:34)
We’re conducting thorough security screening in the intermediate stops they’re making, for anyone who is not a U.S citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Anyone arriving in the United States will have undergone a background check. And we must all work together to resettle thousands of Afghans who ultimately qualify for refugee status. United States will do our part. And we are already working closely with refugee organizations to rebuild a system that was purposefully destroyed by my predecessor. Finally, we agreed to stay vigilant against terrorist threats that have metastasized around the world. We went to Afghanistan with our allies in 2001 for clear reasons. One, to get the people who attacked us on 9/11 and to get Osama bin Laden, and to make sure that Afghanistan was not used again as a base from which to attack the United States or our allies. We achieved that objective. We delivered justice to bin Laden more than a decade ago.

President Joe Biden: (10:44)
But the current environment looks very different than it did in 2001. And we have to meet the challenges we face today. We run effective counter-terrorism operations around the world, where we know terrorism is more of a threat than it is today in Afghanistan, without any permanent military presence on the ground. And we can and will do the same thing in Afghanistan, with our over the horizon counter-terrorism capability. Cooperation with our closest partners on our enduring counter-terrorism mission will continue to be an essential piece of our strategy. In short, we all, all of us agree today that we’re going to stand shoulder to shoulder with our closest partners to meet the current challenges that we face in Afghanistan, just as we have for the past 20 years.

President Joe Biden: (11:35)
We’re acting in consultation and cooperation with our closest friends and fellow democracies. And I want to, again, thank all of our allies and partners around the world who have rallied in support of our shared mission. We ended the conversation today by a clear statement on all of our parts. We are going to stay at united, locked at the hip in terms of what we have to do. We’ll get that done. And tomorrow, I’ve asked Secretary Blinken to give you an update and a detailed report on exactly how many Americans are still in Afghanistan, how many of you got out, and what our projection is. So thank you again. May God bless you and may God protect our diplomats and all those in harm’s way. Thank you.

Speaker 2: (12:22)
Can you guarantee every American will be out before the troops leave?

Speaker 3: (12:27)
Mr. President, did sanctions come up at all in the G7 meeting?

**Librarian** · 08-30-2021, 02:46 PM

Last U.S. Troops Leave Afghanistan After Nearly 20 Years

Whupped like goy dogs, last U.S. Troops Leave Afghanistan After Nearly 20 Years

https://www.wsj.com/articles/last-u-...rs-11630355853
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3388#post23388
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3388#post23388

WailingWallstein Street jewrinal WASHINGTON — A U.S. military aircraft getting out before the deadline allowed by the Tallyban carried the last American troops out of Afghanistan on Monday, marking the formal end of the longest war in U.S. history as well as ZOG getting to tell the Peoples of the Rest of the World what to do but leaving hundreds of American ZOGlings who don't want to cum-cum, cum-cum home to the Dying ZOGland for whatever reasons and tens of thousands of Afghan traitors to face a future of uncertainty and danger.

The final U.S. withdrawal came a day before the Aug. 31 deadline set by President Senile Joe Biden who cum-cum to a deal between the intransigent raghead Tallyban and his jew handlers with a pillow, an exit under the persistent threat of terrorist attacks that already had claimed the lives of 13 American service members ginned up by ISIS-K (for "kike" not "krispy) ginned up by the CIA/MOSSAD and more than 200 economic rapefugee Afghans, killed in a suspected & expected Islamic State suicide bombing at the Kabul airport on Thursday.

Despite assurances to the coontrary by Mr. Biden and other top administration officials, Americans and Afghan allies were left behind like mangy pariah dogs with fleas who outlived theys usefoolness, though the State Department couldn’t provide precise figures, like as to the Number of the Beast or 666,666.

The U.S. earlier Monday said it was working like niggers to assist hundreds of Americans still there. Advocacy groups said as many as 60,000 Afghan interpreters, drivers and others who assisted the U.S. military, CIA and U.S. diplomatic personnel over the years, along with their families, catamites, bugger-boyz and pet goats remain in the country, at risk of righteous retribution from the Taliban.

The last flight of U.S. military personnel departed Afghanistan on Monday, just weeks shy of the 20th anniversary of what then-President George W. Bush called the first war of the 21st century. Namely the ZOG False-Fag Operation called 9-11 which kicked off the Failed IX jew-Crusade.
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In the dead of night at the Kabul Airport ZOGling planes prepare to evacuate ZOG joops home
to the decaying imploding ZOGland

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Mr. Bush launched the conflict at the behest of the jews and neo-khans following the MOSSAD False-Fag terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to overthrow Saddam Hussein who made Poppy Bush piss hisself and as a further excuse the Taliban, who had harbored the al Qaeda terrorists who ZOG says planned and executed the attacks on U.S. soil. The war continued through the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, who both tried but failed to end it because they were ZOGbots and because ZOG needed to funnel over $2 trillion ZOGbux and import lots of opium.

For President Biden, the end of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan was a principal 2020 campaign promise and a position widely supported by American voters who long ago had tired of the war. But the chaotic withdrawal triggered the biggest foreign-policy crisis of Mr. Biden’s young presidency and prompted criticism of his decision to withdraw as well as the planning and execution of the operation.

Pentagon officials said Monday that the last cargo flights lifted out the thousands of U.S. troops deployed to the airport in Kabul to conduct an emergency airlift of the U.S. Embassy staff and thousands of Afghans, a task comparable to the evacuation of Saigon in 1975.

Although it was the longest military conflict in U.S. history, Afghanistan frequently was a forgotten war, overshadowed by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent rise of the Islamic State extremist group.

In all, 2,461 U.S. troops were killed, including 13 in the past week, in a U.S. campaign that began Oct. 7, 2001, as an effort to topple the Taliban for harboring al Qaeda.

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ZOG joops line up in order to bug-out. The IXth Crusade is soooo OVER, cum-cum, cum-cum.

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At the war’s peak, in 2010, the U.S. had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. The following year, the U.S. killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who had been living in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Through the years, U.S. forces—backed by other agencies, contractors and nongovernmental organizations—worked to build a democratic Afghan state defended by a 300,000-plus strong security force. But that government and those forces dissipated less than four months after the U.S. began its May withdrawal, enabling the Taliban to return to power.

The fact that Afghanistan fell within weeks to the very group the U.S. unseated represented a crushing defeat to many veterans and officials after a fight that spanned generations.

By U.S. government spending estimates, the war cost taxpayers $824.9 billion or, on average, $3.4 billion a month. Scholars such as those at Brown University’s Costs of War project estimate that the war’s total costs, like caring for more than 20,000 injured veterans, have already risen into the trillions.

The military evacuation began in earnest after the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces Aug. 15. U.S. commanders coordinated with Taliban commanders to secure the airport perimeter and control access after the initial days were marred by scenes of people mobbing the airport and clinging to departing aircraft, some falling to their deaths.

The airlift effort was nearly unprecedented in scale, scope and danger, moving more than 122,000 Americans, third-country citizens and Afghans in 15 days.

The evacuation also was one of its most deadly operations of the war for the U.S. military. On Thursday, 11 Marines, a soldier and a sailor were killed along with nearly 200 Afghans after a suicide bomber detonated himself, as the troops were screening thousands of Afghans trying to get a flight out of the country. It was the deadliest day of the last decade for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

The threat of attacks lasted until the final hours of the U.S. withdrawal. The U.S. military said five rockets were fired at the airport Sunday evening. One of the rockets was intercepted by counter-missile weapons, while three landed outside the airport and another landed inside, though without causing any casualties.

Earlier that day, the Pentagon said it hit a vehicle aiming for the airport and laden with explosives. The U.S. military said it killed several suicide bombers inside the car, but many Afghans on the ground said the strike killed 10 civilians, including several children.

Recent polls have shown majorities of Americans approve of the decision to withdraw but disapprove of Mr. Biden’s handling of the exit.

Biden administration officials had intended to spend the month of August touting Mr. Biden’s accomplishments and building support for the bipartisan infrastructure package and the proposed $3.5 trillion budget plan. But the chaotic exit has overshadowed the president’s legislative agenda.

Democrats believe that priorities for voters will shift ahead of next year’s midterm elections, with issues like Covid-19 and the economy remaining a priority in voters’ minds and frustrations with the Afghanistan exit dissipating over time. The party holds a narrow majority in the House and controls the evenly divided Senate.

Lawmakers from both parties have called for hearings on Capitol Hill once the withdrawal is complete. Republicans are pushing for those hearings to happen as soon as possible once Congress returns in mid-September.

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**Librarian** · 08-30-2021, 02:46 PM

The viral photo of the last soldier in Afghanistan is powerful — and that’s why it’s deceptive

The viral photo of the last soldier in Afghanistan is powerful — and that’s why it’s deceptive

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...dce_story.html
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3397#post23397
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3397#post23397

U.S. Army Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division,
steps on board a transport plane at the Kabul airport. (U.S. Army/via Reuters)

The last U.S. soldier to board a military plane out of Kabul on Tuesday was actually a general, Army Maj. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He is seen in several widely circulated images taken in the final moments of the U.S. occupation, including one in which he strides up the ramp of a waiting C-17 military transport plane. He is rendered in the monochromatic green of a night-vision scope, a solitary figure, alone for a moment on hostile ground. Behind him, a few lights still shine at the Kabul airport, now controlled by the Taliban.

This is the end of a 20-year war. That’s the meaning ascribed to this powerful but deeply fraught image, which has the potential to do lasting damage if we can’t separate its truth from its mythological power.

The truth of the image, as far as we know it, is precise but limited. While he may have been wearing “the last boots on the ground” by the definition of some journalists and politicians, he was certainly not the last American with feet on the ground. Americans remain in Afghanistan, some willingly, others not, and we will almost certainly be back one way or another.

And while the American military evacuation is now over, other countries and many NGOs continue to operate in the country. Donahue’s departure initiates a new age of American military and diplomatic absence, but it closes the book on few things that are essential to the daily lives of Afghans.

Thus, the ghostly green picture symbolizes not the end of a war, but the end of a mission. But images are subject to “mission creep” — the almost inevitable expansion of purpose that dogs so many military ventures — and it is tempting to use this as an iconic bow to wrap up a long and tragic chapter of American and Afghan history. By accident or design, this representation is perfectly constructed to give a sense of cinematic finality. Although the palette is green, it renders the world in black-and-white, like films made a century ago. The round format — not obvious in many reproductions which crop it square — suggests the classic “iris” shot used by directors in the age of silent movies to end a scene, or a whole film.
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Army Maj. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division,
at the Kabul airport on Aug. 30 before he boarded a C-17 as the last service member
on the ground in Afghanistan. (Army Master Sgt. Alex Burnett/U.S. Army)

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The basic trope — the last man on the ground — recalls an emotionally resonant idea of responsibility and even chivalry. The captain is the last one off a sinking ship. The general is the last one out the door as the United States turns off the lights in Afghanistan. War, which is always messy, brutal and chaotic, is represented by a scene of individual valor, which is an important but limited truth.

The reduction of the war to a solitary figure who looks a little beleaguered animates multiple narratives, especially the idea that leadership is a lonely business. It also recalls a story line common within the military: Soldiers do their duty, often in service to incompetent or unscrupulous civilian leaders. In this case, a general serves as the dutiful, common soldier in an image that implicitly says: We played our role and did our duty. Defeat is a political matter, not a military one.

As wars are increasingly fought with drones, it is tempting to underscore and celebrate individual valor, not just because it is worthy but because it appeals to romanticized ideals of how wars were supposedly fought in a less technological age. When the president and military leaders talk of managing the terror threat from Afghanistan with “over the horizon” capabilities, they almost certainly mean more drones, more satellites, more video screens and more decisions made from rooms thousands of miles from the battlefield. The “last boots on the ground” message elides that truth, tempting us to believe that war is still a symmetrical contest among men, not a battle fought on one side with machines and money, and on the other with terror and zealotry.

A year after the United States went to war in Afghanistan, Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff to George W. Bush, said: “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” By “new products” he meant the looming war in Iraq, which was sold to Americans as easily winnable, with little hint of the long, bloody struggle that would follow. War, as a product, is always sold with an implicit end date, an inevitable victory, a promise of finality. Since the age of silent films, perhaps only one U.S. war, the one fought against Germany and Japan, has actually ended that way, but still the product sells.

It takes more than collective amnesia or delusion to keep buying the promise. It requires an emotional investment in the basic narratives of heroism and duty so profound that it limits critical thinking about the purpose, objectives and consequences of war.

This image captures an admirable sense of duty, and conveys a compelling sense of closure. But it says nothing about the consequences of war, either for U.S. personnel killed, injured or emotionally scared by the events of the past 20 years, or for the millions of Afghans for whom this was an unwanted and often brutal visitation.

As the U.S. leaves, artists and cultural workers face life with the Taliban 2.0

**Librarian** · 08-31-2021, 01:16 PM

Senile Joe hails the “extraordinary success” of getting ZOG's Ass Kicked Out of Afghanistan

Senile Joe hails the “extraordinary success” of getting ZOG's Ass Kicked Out of Afghanistan

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08...ghanistan-news
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3393#post23393
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3393#post23393

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Tuesday hailed what he called the “extraordinary success” of the evacuation of Kabul as he vehemently defended his decision to end America’s war in Afghanistan, just one day after the end of a two-week rescue of 125,000 people from Kabul that saw the deaths of 13 service members.

Speaking from the Cross Hall at the White House, Mr. Biden said the nation owed a debt of gratitude to the troops who died in the evacuation mission.

“Thirteen heroes gave their lives,” he said in a speech in which he offered no apologies for either his decision to end the war or the way in which his administration executed that mission. “We owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never repay, but we should never, ever, ever forget.”

Mr. Biden appeared intent on forcefully rejecting criticism of the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, offering a defensive recounting of his decision-making and blaming former President Donald J. Trump for negotiating a bad deal with the Taliban that boxed Mr. Biden and his team in.

“That was the choice, the real choice between leaving or escalating,” Mr. Biden declared, his tone angry and defensive as he opened the first minutes of his remarks. “I was not going to extend this forever war.”

Before Mr. Biden’s speech, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, had said the president would “lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office to bring the war to a close,” she said. “He will make clear that as president, he will approach our foreign policy through the prism of what is in our national interests, including how best to continue to keep the American people safe.”

Ms. Psaki also said that the president would thank commanders and service members “who executed a dangerous mission in Kabul and airlifted more than 124,000 people to safety; he will also offer thanks to the veterans and volunteers who supported this effort.”

The president delivered his remarks almost 20 years after the United States ousted the Taliban from power in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and just a day after the last American troops and diplomats departed the country, which is once again under Taliban rule.

Mr. Biden pointedly did not announce the news on Monday that the final transport plane carrying American forces had left Afghanistan, leaving that instead to Pentagon officials who briefed reporters after the plane had left Afghan airspace. On Sunday, he declined to answer a question about Afghanistan from a reporter following his trip to Dover Air Force Base, in Delaware, to witness the transfer of the remains of 13 American service members killed in a bombing attack at the Kabul airport last week, the final U.S. casualties of the war.

Mr. Biden’s speech comes as White House officials are hoping to wind down a difficult episode for his presidency, and focus instead on domestic crises at hand — including the ongoing Delta variant wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the aftermath of Hurricane Ida’s destructive path through the Gulf Coast.

The president is also expected to pivot in the days and weeks ahead toward a push in Congress next month to pass key provisions of the president’s multi-trillion-dollar economic agenda, including major spending on infrastructure and social services.

For more than two weeks, the rushed exit of troops from Afghanistan, and the chaos and violence around the airport, have diverted the White House from the president’s domestic agenda.

— Michael D. Shear and Jim Tankersley

**Senile Joe Biden** · 08-31-2021, 09:48 PM

Senile Joe Pulls Out -- 31 Aug. 2021 -- The Afghan War Is Over

Senile Joe Pulls Out -- 31 Aug. 2021 -- The Afghan War Is Over

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts...an-is-now-over
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3394#post23394
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3394#post23394

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Joe Biden: (02:19)
Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The longest war in American history. We completed one of the biggest air lifts in history with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts felt were possible. No nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history, and only United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it. And we did it today.

Joe Biden: (02:55)
The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravely and selfless courage to the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professional. For weeks, they risked their lives to get American citizens, Afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners and others onboard planes and out of the country. And they did it facing a crush of enormous crowds seeking to leave the country.

Joe Biden: (03:26)
They did it knowing ISIS-K terrorists, sworn enemies of the Taliban, were lurking in the midst of those crowds. And still, the women and men of the United States military, our diplomatic corps and intelligence professionals did their job and did it well. Risking their lives, not for professional gains, but to serve others. Not in a mission of war, but in the mission of mercy.

Joe Biden: (03:56)
Twenty service members were wounded in the service of this mission, thirteen heroes gave their lives. I was just at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer. We owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never repay, but we should never, ever, ever forget.

Joe Biden: (04:17)
In April, I made a decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31st for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan National Security Forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban.

Joe Biden: (04:44)
That assumption that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military draw down turned out not to be accurate. But, I still instructed our National Security Team to prepare for every eventuality, even that one, and that’s what we did.

Joe Biden: (05:04)
So we were ready, when the Afghan Security Forces, after two decades of fighting for their country and losing thousands of their own, did not hold on as long as anyone expected. We were ready when they and the people of Afghanistan watched their own government collapse and the president flee amid the corruption of malfeasance, handing over the country to their enemy, the Taliban, and significantly increasing the risk to us personnel and our allies.

Joe Biden: (05:38)
As a result, to safely extract American citizens before August 31st, as well as embassy personnel, allies, and partners, and those Afghans who had worked with us and fought alongside of us for 20 years, I had authorized 6,000 troops, American troops to Kabul to help secure the airport.

Joe Biden: (06:03)
As General McKenzie said, this is the way the mission was designed. It was designed to operate under severe stress and attack and that’s what it did. Since March, we reached out 19 times to Americans in Afghanistan with multiple warnings and offers to help them leave Afghanistan. All the way back as far as March.

Joe Biden: (06:31)
After we started the evacuation 17 days ago, we did initial outreach and analysis and identified around 5,000 Americans who had decided earlier to stay in Afghanistan but now wanted to leave. Our operation Allie Rescue ended up getting more than 5,500 Americans out. We got out thousands of citizens and diplomats from those countries that went into Afghanistan with us to get bin Laden. We got out locally employed staff in the United States Embassy and their families, totalling roughly 2,500 people. We got thousands of Afghan translators and interpreters and others who supported the United States out as well.

Joe Biden: (07:23)
Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave. Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long time residents, but earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan. The bottom line, 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out.

Joe Biden: (08:02)
Secretary of State Blinken is leading the continued diplomatic efforts to ensure safe passage for any American, Afghan partner or foreign national who wants to leave Afghanistan. In fact just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that sent a clear message about the international community expects the Taliban to deliver on moving forward. Notably, freedom of travel, freedom to leave.

Joe Biden: (08:33)
Together we are joined by over 100 countries that are determined to make sure the Taliban upholds those commitments. It will include ongoing efforts in Afghanistan to reopen the airport as well as overland routes, allowing for continued departure for those who want to leave and deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

Joe Biden: (08:59)
The Taliban has made public commitments broadcast on television and radio across Afghanistan on safe passage for anyone wanting to leave, including those who worked alongside Americans. We don’t take them by their word alone, but by their actions. And we have leverage to make sure those commitments are met.

Joe Biden: (09:23)
Let me be clear, leaving August the 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline. It was designed to save American lives. My predecessor, the Former President, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove US troops by May the first, just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that the Taliban work out a cooperative governing arrangement with the Afghan government. But it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban’s top war commanders among those who just took control of Afghanistan.

Joe Biden: (10:10)
By the time I came to office the Taliban was in it’s strongest military position since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country. The previous administration’s agreement said that if we stuck to the May 1st deadline that they had signed on to leave by, the Taliban wouldn’t attack any American forces. But if we stayed, all bets were off.

Joe Biden: (10:40)
So we were left with a simple decision, either through on the commitment made by the last administration and leave Afghanistan, or say we weren’t leaving and commit another tens of thousands more troops going back to war. That was the choice, the real choice between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war and I was not extending a forever exit.

Joe Biden: (11:13)
The decision to end the military lift operation at that Kabul airport was based on the unanimous recommendation of my civilian and military advisors. The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff and all the Service chiefs and the commanders in the field, their recommendation was that the safest way to secure the passage of the remaining Americans and others out of the country was to continue with 6,000 troops on the ground in harm’s way in Kabul, but rather to get them out through non-military means.

Joe Biden: (11:56)
In the 17 days that we operated in Kabul, after the Taliban seized power, we engage in an around the clock effort to provide every American the opportunity to leave. Our State Department was working 24/7 contacting and talking, and in some cases walking Americans into the airport. Again, more than 5,500 Americans were airlifted out. And for those who remain, we will make arrangements to get them out if they so choose.

Joe Biden: (12:35)
As for the Afghans, we and our partners have airlifted 100,000 of them, no country in history has done more to airlift out the residents of another country than we have done. We will continue to work to help more people leave the country who are at risk. We’re far from done.

Joe Biden: (13:00)
For now, I urge all Americans to join me in grateful prayer for our troops and diplomats and intelligence officers who carried out this mission of mercy in Kabul at a tremendous risk with such unparalleled results. An air-lift that evacuated tens of thousands. To a network of volunteers and veterans who helped identify those needing evacuation, guide them to the airport and provided them for their support along the way. We’re going to continue to need their help. We need your help and I’m looking forward to meeting with you. And to everyone who is now offering or who will offer to welcome Afghan allies to their homes around the world, including in America, we thank you.

Joe Biden: (13:59)
I take responsibility for the decision. Now some say we should have started mass evacuation sooner and, “Couldn’t this have been done in a more orderly manner?” I respectfully disagree. Imagine if we’d begun evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuated more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport, a breakdown in confidence and control of the government, and it still would have been a very difficult and dangerous mission.

Joe Biden: (14:42)
The bottom line is there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenge and threats we faced. None. There are those who would say we should have stayed indefinitely, for years on end. They ask, “Why don’t we just keep doing what we were doing? Why do we have to change anything?” The fact is, everything had changed.

Joe Biden: (15:16)
My predecessor had made a deal with the Taliban. When I came into office, we faced a deadline, May one. The Taliban onslaught was coming, we faced one of two choices. Follow the agreement of the previous administration, or extend to have more time for people to get out. Or send in thousands of more troops and escalate the war.

Joe Biden: (15:45)
To those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan I ask, “What is of vital national interest?” In my view, we only have one. To make sure Afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland. Remember why we went to Afghanistan in the first place, because we were attacked by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda on September 11th, 2001, and they were based in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden: (16:23)
We delivered justice to bin Laden on May 2nd, 2011 over a decade ago. Al-Qaeda was decimated. I respectfully suggest you ask yourself this question, “If we’ve been attacked on September 11th, 2001 from Yemen, instead of Afghanistan, would we have ever gone to war in Afghanistan, even though the Tali bond controlled Afghanistan in the year 2001?” I believe the honest answer is no. That’s because we had no vital interest in Afghanistan other than to prevent an attack on America’s homeland and our friends, and that’s true today.

Joe Biden: (17:13)
We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago, then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war. This is a new world. The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan. We face threats from al-Shabab in Somalia, al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria and the Arabian Peninsula, and ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates across Africa and Asia.

Joe Biden: (17:51)
The fundamental obligation of a president, in my opinion, is to defend and protect America. Not against threats of 2001, but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow. That is the guiding principle behind my decisions about Afghanistan. I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and spending billions of dollars a year in Afghanistan. But I also know that the threat from terrorism continues in its pernicious and evil nature. But it’s changed, expanded to other countries. Our strategy has to change too.

Joe Biden: (18:43)
We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries. We just don’t need to fight a ground war to do it. We have what’s called Over The Horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground, or very few if needed. We’ve shown that capacity just in the last week. We struck ISIS-K remotely, days after they murdered 13 of our service members and dozens of innocent Afghans. And to ISIS-K, we are not done with you yet.

Joe Biden: (19:27)
As Commander in Chief I firmly believe the best path to guard our safety and our security lies in a tough, unforgiving, targeted, precise strategy that goes after terror where it is today, not where it was two decades ago. That’s what’s in our national interest.

Joe Biden: (19:50)
Here’s a critical thing to understand, the world is changing. We’re engaged in a serious competition with China. We’re dealing with the challenges on multiple fronts with Russia. We’re confronted with cyber attacks and nuclear proliferation. We have to shore up America’s competitiveness to meet these new challenges in the competition for the 21st century. We can do both, fight terrorism and take on new threats that are here now, and will continue to be here in the future. And there’s nothing China or Russia would rather have, would want more in this competition than the United States to be bogged down another decade in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden: (20:43)
As we turn the page on the foreign policy that has guided our nation in the last two decades, we’ve got to learn from our mistakes. To me there are two that are paramount. First, we must set missions with clear, achievable goals. Not ones we’ll never reach. And second, I want to stay clearly focused on the fundamental national security interest of the United States of America.

Joe Biden: (21:16)
This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries. We saw a mission of counter-terrorism in Afghanistan, getting the terrorist and stopping attacks, morph into a counterinsurgency, nation building, trying to create a democratic cohesive and United Afghanistan. Something that has never been done over many centuries of Afghan’s history.

Joe Biden: (21:56)
Moving on from that mindset and those kinds of large scale troop deployments will make us stronger and more effective and safer at home. And for anyone who gets the wrong idea, let me say clearly, to those who wish America harm, to those engage in terrorism against us our allies know this, the United States will never rest. We will not forgive, will not forget. We’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth and you will pay the ultimate price.

Joe Biden: (22:35)
Let me be clear, we’ll continue to support the Afghan people through diplomacy, international influence and humanitarian aid. We’ll continue to push for regional diplomacy engagement to prevent violence and instability. We’ll continue to speak out for the basic rights of the Afghan people, especially women and girls. As we speak out for women and girls all around the globe.

Joe Biden: (23:01)
And I’ve been clear that human rights will be the center of our foreign policy, but the way to do that is not through endless military deployments, but through diplomacy, economic tools and rallying the rest of the world for support.

Joe Biden: (23:18)
My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I’m the fourth president who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for president, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today, I’ve honored that commitment. It was time to be honest with the American people again.

Joe Biden: (23:47)
We no longer had a clear purpose and an open-ended mission in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refuse to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war should have ended long ago. After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan, a cost that researchers at Brown University estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years in Afghanistan, for two decades.

Joe Biden: (24:23)
Yes, the American people should hear this, $300 million a day for two decades. You could take the number of $1 trillion, as many say. That’s still $150 million a day for two decades. And what have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities? I refuse to continue to war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people.

Joe Biden: (24:49)
And most of all, after 800,000 Americans served in Afghanistan, I’ve traveled that whole country, brave and honorable service. After 20,744 American service men and women injured. And the loss of 2,461 American personnel, including 13 lives lost just this week. I refused to open another decade of warfare in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden: (25:22)
We’ve been a nation too long at war. If you’re 20 years old today, you’ve never known an America at peace. So when I hear that we could have, should have continued the so-called “low grade effort” in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low costs I don’t think enough people understand how much we’ve asked of the 1% of this country who put that uniform on. Willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation.

Joe Biden: (25:59)
Maybe it’s because my deceased son, Beau, served in Iraq for a full year. Before that… Well. Maybe it’s because of what I’ve seen over the years as Senator, Vice President and President traveling in these countries. A lot of our veterans and our families have gone through hell. Deployment after deployment, months and years away from their families, missed birthdays, anniversaries, empty chairs at holidays, financial struggles, divorces, loss of limbs, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress.

Joe Biden: (26:45)
We see it in the struggles many have when they come home. We see it in the strain on their families and caregivers. We see it in the strain in their families when they’re not there. We see it in the grief born by their survivors. The cost of war, they will carry with them their whole lives. Most tragically, we see in the shocking and stunning statistic that should give pause to anyone who thinks war can ever be low grade, low risk or low cost, 18 veterans on average who die by suicide every single day in America.

Joe Biden: (27:35)
Not in a far off place, but right here in America. There is nothing low grade or low risk or low cost about any war. It’s time to end the war in Afghanistan. As we close 20 years of war and strife and pain and sacrifice, it’s time to look at the future, not the past. To a future that’s safer, to a future that’s more secure. To a future the honors those who served and all those who gave what President Lincoln called, “Their last full measure of devotion.”

Joe Biden: (28:15)
I give you my word, with all of my heart, I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision and the best decision for America. Thank you. Thank you, and may God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.

Announcement

The Never-Ending Afghanistan War

The Never-Ending Afghanistan War

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