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Biden ‘stands by’ Afghanistan decision, spokesperson insists as president under pressure to address nation

Taliban’s seizure of the country came as shock to senior officials

John Bowden
Monday 16 August 2021 15:03 BST
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<p>President Joe Biden</p>

President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden is facing increasing calls to address the nation after Taliban forces completed their conquest of Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday, overthrowing the country’s US-supported leadership and sending thousands scrambling for ways to flee the country.

The US leader was at the presidential retreat at Camp David on Sunday, where he made no public remarks and statements from his officials were few and far between as the war in Afghanistan drew to a conclusion after nearly two decades.

Adding to the pressure is the fact that Mr Biden himself predicted just weeks ago that the Taliban was not comparable to the north Vietnamese communist army and therefore posed much less of a threat to the Afghan government; his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, battled with various news anchors on Sunday over comparisons to the evacuation of Saigon.

Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, explained on Monday that the president “stands by” his decision to remove troops from the country, the speed of which many have blamed for the country’s rapid descent into chaos.

The president is now holding discussions with advisers to make a national address about the fall of Afghanistan and faces calls to address his comments from just a month ago predicting stability in the county, as many ask how the US and Biden administration could have gotten such a bad read of the situation on the ground.

Addressing reports that Mr Biden will soon speak to Americans, former Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: “Hopefully this happens very soon.”

“Imperative for the President to speak to the nation and the world. He must lay out again the reasoning behind his decisions, how he sees the future of this region & what must be done to prevent another safe haven for al-Qaeda to plan attacks,” said Mr Gibbs.

Rep Jackie Speier, an ally of the president in Congress, added: "This is a crisis of untold proportions”, and called the advance of the Taliban an “intelligence failure” on the part of the US.

The urgency of the issue was only underscored by more Saigon-like images and videos that hit Twitter early on Monday showing desperate Afghan civilians attempting to cling to the outside of a departing US military aircraft as it attempted to take off from Kabul’s airport.

Pentagon officials told The Independent that US forces remained in control of the airport as recently as late Sunday evening, and had taken over air traffic control operations with support from Afghan citizens to ensure that commercial flights and US military craft could continue to leave.

During his interviews on Monday, Mr Sullivan echoed a claim made by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday during a call with members of Congress, explaining that Afghan fighters lacked “the will” to fight off a Taliban conquest of the country.

Sunday’s fall of Kabul came just weeks after Mr Biden promised vehemently that the situation was not “remotely comparable” to the fall of Saigon, even as the situation would devolve into Americans being shuttled by Chinook helicopter to the airport for a rapid escape of the country.

“The Taliban is not... the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability,” said Mr Biden on 8 July. “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the – of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on the president’s comments from July on Sunday.

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