Afghanistan: under fire from critics, Joe Biden tries to reassure on the American evacuation strategy – teller report

“You have known my position for a long time, it is time to end this war”. The United States will not go back, said Joe Biden, in a press conference from the White House this Friday, August 19. Criticized for his handling of the Afghan crisis, in particular the evacuations of American nationals and Afghans, the American president has sought to defend himself against the accusations, for the second time in a few days.

Only the United States is “capable” to conduct such an evacuation operation, among the “most difficult in history”, he said. The American president, surrounded in particular by his vice-president Kamala Harris and his foreign minister Antony Blinken, tried to be reassuring: the United States has already evacuated 18,000 people from Afghanistan since July , including 13,000 people since August 14, he said. “Thousands of others” were also able to be evacuated by private charter flights facilitated by the US government, he said. Among those evacuated are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, immigration visa applicants and Afghans who have “worked alongside us”, as well as journalists, according to the president.

Joe Biden is however under fire from criticism following images of chaotic evacuations in Kabul, following the fall of the capital at the hands of the Taliban Sunday, August 15. Images of panicked civilians crowding in front of entrance gates or trying to cling to planes about to take off shocked American opinion, which was largely in favor of the withdrawal of troops until this week, while the administration Biden had promised his side smooth and organized evacuations.

His Republican opponents criticize in particular the management of the planned withdrawal for August 31 of American troops present in Afghanistan, where they have been fighting for twenty years, which precipitated the fall of the Afghan government according to them. “To abandon Americans to death is an unforgivable breach of duty, which will remain as an infamy”, assured the former Republican President Donald Trump in a statement Friday, once again asking for the “resignation” of his successor, although he himself decided to accelerate the withdrawal of troops even further.

Even in the Democratic camp, some believe that the consequences of this withdrawal had not been sufficiently anticipated, given the collapse of the Afghan regime in just ten days.

“Let’s be clear: all Americans who want to go home, we’ll take them home”, hammered Joe Biden in response, saying that the American authorities were mobilizing to guarantee the access of their nationals to the airport, with 6,000 American soldiers mobilized around the area. The United States plans to evacuate a total of more than 30,000 Americans and Afghan civilians through its bases in Kuwait and Qatar. “We are in contact with the Taliban to safely evacuate our nationals “, he also asserted, stating that the Taliban had been warned that “any attack, whatever it is, against our forces or any disruption of our operations at the airport will be repressed with force and speed “.

He also indicated that his government is working on the evacuation of all its “Afghan allies“, having assisted the United States in its operations in Afghanistan during the war. Since the fall of Kabul, many Afghans, especially those who worked for the United States and held a special immigration visa (SIV) for they and their relatives had been refused access to the secure enclosure of the airport by the American military.

The US president, however, admitted that he could not guarantee “the final outcome” airlift operations in Kabul. “These evacuation operations represent risks for our armed forces, there may be losses”, he added. Before promising: “But as commander-in-chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize all possible means”.

However, Joe Biden assured to benefit from the support of the international community. “I did not see any questioning from our allies”, he said, claiming that they “do not question our credibility”. “We’re talking about America running the world, and all of our allies agree with that”, he argued. The US President asserted that NATO allies “agreed” with the decision to withdraw American troops: “We act together and we do what we promised”, he defended, declaring that the mission of“put an end to Al-Qaida and Bin Laden” had been successful.

He also announced that a G7 meeting would be held next week on the Afghan crisis, indicating that the appointment had been made after talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Monday, Joe Biden had already made a first short televised intervention, defending “firmly” its decision to withdraw American troops there on August 31. “I am the President of the United States and in the end, it is me who assumes”, he then assured. Two days later, in an interview with ABC, Joe Biden estimated that the American withdrawal would invariably have caused some form of “chaos” in the country.