US President Joe Biden pledged on Thursday that he would not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan.
“Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31,” Biden said.
The president had previously said the withdrawal would wrap up by 11 September, but the Pentagon announced this week that more than 90% of the operation was already completed.
Biden defended America’s decision to leave Afghanistan, rejecting the notion that the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban was ‘inevitable’.
However, the US president did admit that it was “highly unlikely” that a unified Afghan government would control most of the territory. His remarks came as the US and foreign forces leave Afghanistan, with the Taliban seizing key districts of the country with every passing day.
The US military has “achieved” its goals in Afghanistan — killing Osama bin Laden, degrading Al-Qaeda and preventing more attacks on the United States, Biden said in a White House speech.
Asked if a Taliban takeover was “inevitable,” the president said: “No, it is not.”
The Taliban claim to have seized more than 100 out of nearly 400 districts in the country.
“The Afghan government… has to come together,” Biden said. “They clearly have the capacity to sustain the government in place. The question is, will they generate the kind of cohesion to do it?”
He expressed faith in Afghan forces, who for years have been trained by and received equipment from the United States, against the resurgent Taliban.
