With the Trump administration a lame duck, the incoming Biden administration’s approach to the peace process uncertain, Taliban violence on the rise, and the Afghan government struggling to manage multi-dimensional security and political challenges, it is far from clear where negotiations are headed. Negotiators spent three months reaching agreement on a mere three-page set of procedures for the talks and were just beginning to discuss what substantive topics to put on their agenda when they took a weeks-long break. Since then, talks have only inched forward and fighting in many parts of Afghanistan has escalated. He said he was “deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision.”īiden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20-year war, a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Western-style democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace it.Peace negotiations between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban commenced in Doha, Qatar, on 12 September, after more than six months of delay amid political dysfunction in Kabul and continued conflict. The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief, and he came under withering criticism from Republicans who said he had failed.īiden expressed confidence in his decision to proceed with the withdrawal and said he was prepared to take the heat. forces shot and killed two individuals it said were armed, as Biden ordered another battalion of troops - about 1,000 - to secure the airfield, which was closed to arrivals and departures for hours Monday because of civilians on the runway. troops resorted to firing warning shots and using helicopters to clear a path for transport aircraft. military plane before takeoff, in a widely shared video that captured the desperation as America’s 20-year war comes to a chaotic end.Īnother video showed the Afghans falling as the plane gained altitude over Kabul. This was evidenced by thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, attempting to flee the country as Taliban forces are taking control of the capital city. troops and the advancement of Taliban rule. Panic set it for many Afghans over the swift exit of U.S.
military presence in the country would have made any difference. He continued that, in his assessment, if Afghanistan is unable to mount a defense against the Taliban now, “there is no chance” that extending U.S.
“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,” he said. military involvement in the country was the right decision. Speaking from the White House on Monday, Biden said the Afghan government’s swift defeat only reinforced the argument that ending U.S.
and NATO forces from the country prompted the Taliban to take over the country in a matter of weeks, with the capital Kabul being the most recent city to fall. Watch Biden’s remarks in the player above. President Joe Biden on Monday defended his administration’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after two decades of war.
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