In an address to the country, President Joe Biden formally announced plans to fully withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by Sept 11.
“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” said Biden. “I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth … It is time to end America’s longest war. It is time for American troops to come home.”
The withdrawal process will begin May 1. The current US military presence is around 2,000 troops, down significantly from its 2011 number of 98,000.
“We have to focus on the challenges that are in front of us,” Biden continued. “We already have service members doing their duty in Afghanistan today whose parents served in the same war. We have service members who were not yet born when our nation was attacked on 9/11. War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking.”
Biden said the US will only play a role in Afghanistan on diplomatic and humanitarian bases
Source: twitter.com
