“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over,” US President Joe Biden said in an address 24 hours after the last American C-17 cargo plane left the war-torn country of Afghanistan.
Biden declared, “I promised the American people I would end this war. Today, I've honored that commitment.”
Further defending his decision to withdraw US troops, Biden said, “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It's about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.”
Biden has been facing criticism for leaving Afghanistan in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, as the Taliban took control of the country leaving thousands of Afghans trying to flee the expected restrictions under the Taliban.
The evacuation in the past few weeks has also been marred with violence, including a suicide bombing last week that killed 13 American service members and 169 Afghans, AP reported.
Calling the decision to withdraw troops “the right decision, a wise decision, and the best decision for America,” Biden said, “There is nothing low-grade, low-risk, or low-cost about any war. It’s time to end the war in Afghanistan.”
He added, “As we closed 20 years of war and strife and pain and sacrifice, it’s time to look to the future, not the past. To a future that’s safer, to a future that’s more secure, to a future that honours those who served and all those who gave, what President Lincoln called, ‘their last full measure of devotion’.”
Biden also stressed on the cost of the war, emphasising that the US spent $300 million a day for the last 20 years.
He asserted, “I refused to continue the war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people.”
Biden also applauded the evacuation efforts of the US military and said, “We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history – with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. No nation has ever done anything like it.”
(With inputs from AP)
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