US President Defends Chaotic Afghanistan Pullout Amid Taliban Takeover

US President Joe Biden, in a televised speech from the East Room of the White House Monday afternoon Washington time, addressed the nation on events in Afghanistan, where Taliban forces have overrun the country and taken the reins of government while the United States pulled out its last troops and diplomatic staff. “I stand squarely behind my decision” to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, President Biden said, even while acknowledging that his administration did not anticipate the quick collapse of the government in the face of a Taliban offensive that took over province after province and finally, the capital, Kabul. The US president said that the American military could not take on a mission that the Afghan army itself was unwilling to fight for: “It is wrong,” he said, “to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not.” The president noted that this was America’s longest war, and said that it could not be won. “The events we see now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, secure, Afghanistan. … I cannot and will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country’s civil war.” After concluding his remarks, the president left the room without taking questions from reporters.