President Biden said Wednesday U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan until all Americans have been evacuated even if it means staying beyond the Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal.
“If there’s American citizens left, we are going to stay until we get them all out,” Mr. Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in his first media interview since the U.S.’s bungled exit from Afghanistan,
The president acknowledged that getting all Americans out by the end of the month would require a significant increase in the number of individuals evacuated each day.
“Americans should understand that we’re going to try to get it done before Aug. 31,” Mr. Biden said, according to a clip released by ABC News.
When pressed on whether he was committed to making sure troops stay in Afghanistan until every American is out, Mr. Biden responded, “Yes.”
The government estimates more than 10,000 Americans are still in Afghanistan as chaos engulfs the country following the Taliban takeover last weekend.
Mr. Biden told ABC News there are probably between 50,000 and 65,000 Afghanistan citizens who aided the U.S. also waiting to be evacuated. Their departure has been slowed by immigration problems and creating safe passageways to the Kabul airport amid the Taliban’s checkpoints.
The president also continued to defend the decision to hastily leave Afghanistan, saying the chaos was inevitable.
“The idea that somehow there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuring, I don’t know that happens. I don’t know how that happened,” he told Mr. Stephanopoulos.
Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed Mr. Biden asking him if the tumult was “priced” into the withdrawal decision.
“Yes,” Mr. Biden insisted.
But he later clarified his answer by saying it wasn’t exactly “priced in.”
“Look, one of the things we didn’t know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out,” he said. “What they would do. What are they doing now? They’re cooperating, letting American citizens get out. American personnel get out, embassies get out, etc., but they’re having — we’re having some difficulty having those who helped us when were in there.”
Mr. Biden also bristled when Mr. Stephanopoulos referred to the chaos at the Kabul airport. Thousands of frightened Afghans swarmed the runway, desperate for escape.
Television cameras captured Afghans frantically clinging to a U.S. Air Force jet exiting the country. At least seven people died during the first day of airport chaos with some falling to the deaths from departing planes.
“That was four days ago, five days ago,” Mr. Biden complained, although the photo Mr. Stephanopoulos was referring to a photo of hundreds of evacuees packed into an American cargo plane. That photo was taken on Monday.
“Mr. Biden said when saw the picture his first thought was that the U.S. had to gain control of the situation.
“We have to move this more quickly,” he said. “We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.”
The Biden administration said Tuesday that 3.200 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan, including all U.S. Embassy personnel, except for a small group of diplomats at the Kabul airport.
But the Taliban has set up checkpoints making transportation to the airport treacherous. The U.S. has not provided American citizens with a safe passage to the airport.
Still, Mr. Biden remained defiant, defending his decision to leave Afghanistan as criticism continues to mount. He said had America opted to stay in Afghanistan, the U.S. would have had to ramp up the number of troops.
He again pointed the finger at the Afghan government, blaming its president for fleeing the nation amid the Taliban onslaught.
“It was a simple choice, George,” Mr. Biden said. “When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of the government taking off and going to another country; when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off — that was, you know, Im not… that’s what happened. That’s simply what happened.”
“And so the question was, in the beginning, the threshold question was do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set do we extend it to Sept. 1 or do we put significantly more troops in?” he continued.
“I had a simple choice. If I said, ‘we’re gonna stay,’ then we’d better be prepared to put a whole hell of a lot more troops in.”
Source:Washington Times
