President Biden will withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, according to multiple reports.
Biden recently hinted that former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal date of May 1 would be hard to meet because of “tactical reasons” and would be impossible to accomplish in a safe and orderly fashion.
About 2,500 US troops remain in Afghanistan.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president would make public remarks about “the way forward” in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
She said Biden has maintained for a while now that “there’s not a military solution to Afghanistan and that we have been there for far too long.”
She said he made up his mind after “close consultation with military leaders with his national security team, with partners and allies around the world, and with his objective in mind of ensuring we are focusing on the threats we’re facing,” Psaki said.
As news of Biden’s decision was reported, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted the move in a speech on the floor of the Senate, saying the administration “plans to turn tail and abandon the fight in Afghanistan.”
“A reckless pullback like this would abandon our Afghan regional and our NATO partners in a shared fight against terrorists that we’ve not yet won. It will also specifically abandon the women of Afghanistan whose individual freedoms and human rights will be imperiled. It did not have to unfold like this,” the Kentucky Republican said.
“Today in Afghanistan, the fighting is borne almost exclusively by our local partners. We’ve successfully solicited more buy-in and more support from foreign partners as well. Our NATO allies have particularly been begging, begging, the United States to stay by their side,” said McConnell, who was also critical of Trump’s pullout plan.
McConnell said Democrats and Republicans alike voiced opposition when the Trump administration proposed removing US troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
“Those same voices in both parties should be equally concerned about the Biden administration’s announcement today,” he added.
He continued to say that America has “seen this movie before,” noting how the Obama administration’s drawdown of US troops in Iraq led to the rise of the Islamic State and the abandonment of Afghanistan in the 1990s allowed the Taliban to thrive and created a safe haven for terrorists, leading to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“Conflicts do not simply end. They are won or they are lost,” McConnell said. “Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic terrorists have not yet been defeated.”
Rep. Michael McCaul, ranking Republican on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the US is abandoning its allies.
“This will mean we are not leaving a residual force to address the counterterrorism threats emanating from Afghanistan, abandoning our Afghan partners during critical peace negotiations, and allowing the Taliban a total victory despite their failure to fulfill their commitments under our agreement,” McCaul said in a statement.
McCaul, of Texas, urged Biden to reconsider.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) criticized the pullout, saying “a random withdrawal just because you’re celebrating an anniversary is not the right decision.”
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) called the decision “outrageous” and said it should be “conditions-based.”
The removal of US troops would be contingent on ensuring security and human rights guarantees, Reuters reported, citing officials.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to brief the NATO alliance about the decision during a visit to Brussels on Wednesday.
The Taliban, responding to Biden’s remarks about not meeting Trump’s timeline, threatened to “continue its Jihad and armed struggle against foreign forces to liberate its country” if the US military has a presence after May 1.
The militant group negotiated the May 1 date with the Trump administration last February.
In return for the US troop removal, the Taliban pledged not to allow al Qaeda to use Afghanistan as a base to launch terror strikes against the US and its allies, vowed to reject violence and agreed to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government.
More than 2,300 US military members have died and more than 20,000 have been wounded in Afghanistan since the war began in October 2001 — America’s longest war.