The US president reported that he will send 5,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy personnel and other allies in Kabul. “We are working to remove thousands who have helped our cause and their families,” he said.
US President Joe Biden threatened the Taliban with a “swift and forceful” response if they attack US interests in their current military campaign, in the framework of which Washington is keeping an open campaign to evacuate officials in which they will participate. 5,000 US military personnel, 2,000 more than initially authorized by the White House.
Biden held a video conference this Saturday with senior security officials to analyze the situation on the ground. The Taliban have managed to take in just over a week two-thirds of the provincial capitals, with strategic conquests such as the one achieved this Saturday in Mazar-e Sharif, and the pressure increases on Kabul.
The US president, who this week said he had not “regretted” removing the troops, has now authorized some 5,000 soldiers to manage the “orderly and safe” departure of US personnel and other allies, as well as Afghans who have helped during the mission that is nearing completion, 20 years after entering Afghanistan. “We are working to evacuate thousands who have helped our cause and their families,” he said in a statement.
The United States, according to Biden, will remain vigilant against “future terrorist threats” from Afghanistan, which also includes a clear warning to the Taliban: “Any action on your part … that puts our personnel or our mission at risk will receive a swift and forceful military response.”
This is how US representatives have transferred it to the Taliban delegation sent to Doha (Qatar), the scene of negotiations that for now have not offered peace guarantees to the Afghans. Biden has ordered his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to support the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Gani, in the search for a “political solution” to the conflict.
THE AFGHAN LEGACY
Biden also wanted to explain in his note “how we got here”, making it clear that, whatever happens, with him “the longest war” is closed. In this sense, he recalled that there are already four presidents who have occupied the Oval Office with the war in Afghanistan on the table. “I will not pass it on to a fifth,” he added.:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/CRNKO3XSQLF2M7RZH3FEI35FJU.jpg%20420w)
A Taliban fighter observes a reporter in the city of Ghazni, Afghanistan, on August 14, 2021. REUTERS / Stringer
The US president believes that, with almost a trillion dollars invested in this war, and after the training of 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, it is time to leave Afghanistan. In his opinion, “one more year or five more years of presence would not make any difference if the Afghan Army does not control its own country.”
Thus, he has ruled out an “endless” deployment and has pointed out that, when he assumed the baton from Donald Trump – who had already set a withdrawal deadline for March – the Taliban were “in their strongest military position. “Since 2001. According to Biden, he then had two options: announce a” short extension “of the exit deadline, as he finally did, or” send more troops. “
