Friday 22 / November / 2024
Washington: Amid facing intense criticism for the hasty withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday defended himself by saying that the drawdown of American forces could not have been handled in a way without "chaos ensuing".
In his first interview since the Taliban takeover, Biden once again placed blames on Afghan leaders for the collapse of the troops and takeover by the Taliban. "No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that, we're going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened," Biden told ABC News.
Ever since the Taliban seized control of the country, Biden has been on the receiving end of criticism for pandemonium in Afghanistan.
In recent days, Afghan witnessed the collapse of government and the return of the Taliban after two decades they were ousted by US forces. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
Video footage over the past few days showed chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport where desperate Afghans jostled to get on to planes exiting the country in an attempt to flee the country. This was a reflection of the intense panic shrouding Afghanistan with people fearing the return of the brutal Taliban regime, which ruled the country in the late nineties. The international community watched with equal trepidation the unfolding events.
When asked what happened over the past week in Afghanistan was a failure of intelligence, planning, execution, or judgement.
"Look, I don't think it was a failure," Biden said, cutting himself off. "Look, it was a simple choice, George."
"When the Taliban--let me put it another way--when you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government getting in a plane and taking off and going to another country, when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off... that's what happened, that's simply what happened," the president added.
