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Monday, August 16, 2021

After Taliban fighters seized Kabul, President Biden saturday sent 1,000 troops to Afghanistan in addition for total deployment of 5,000 troops to ensure "an orderly and safe"


A US soldier (C) point his gun towards an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan’s 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city’s airport trying to flee the group’s feared hardline brand of Islamist rule.
Wakil Kohsar | AFP | Getty Images


President Joe Biden admitted that the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban retaking control happened more quickly than the US government had anticipated, leading to the ongoing crisis playing out in front of the world.

VietPress USA
(Aug. 16, 2021): Taliban fighters tool control Afghanistant's capitol Kabul on recent Saturday when President Joe Biden took his holiday over weekend. But President Biden received all the needed reports as news broke that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country while the thousands of Western-trained security forces gave way to Taliban fighters. 

On Saturday, President Biden authorized sending additional troops to Afghanistan to assist the “orderly and safe drawdown of U.S. personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance." By Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Kabul, was fully evacuated.

President Joe Biden announced Saturday that he has authorized to send 1,000 troops in addition to Kabul and that means the total deployment of 5,000 troops to Afghanistan to ensure "an orderly and safe" drawdown and evacuate U.S. personnel as well as Afghans who helped American troops as Taliban militants continued to make rapid territorial gains across the country. 

Earlier,  the Pentagon sent 3,000 troops to Afghanistan this week and 1,000 troops who are already on the ground, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The total of 5,000 troops will help evacuate military personnel from Kabul as the Taliban now seized Kabul and controlled the whole Afghanistan.

Biden said U.S. officials have warned Taliban officials that any action on the ground in Afghanistan that threatens the safety of U.S personnel or the mission there "will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response."


President Biden also drew a red line Monday for the use of future military force. “If they attack our personnel, the U.S. presence will be swift and the response will be forceful. We will defend our people with devastating force, if necessary,” Biden said in a speech delivered from the White House that followed a weekend during which Afghan security forces melted away and Taliban fighters seized control of the country.

Condemning Afghanistan’s military for its apparent refusal to stand and fight the Taliban, Biden said a continued U.S. military presence there was not in the country’s interests.

"I am the president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me," Biden said.

Read this news from Yahoo News at:

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-draws-new-red-line-for-us-military-action-in-afghanistan-214209278.html

VietPress USA News

www.vietpressusa.us

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Biden draws new red line for U.S. military action in Afghanistan

·White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON — In a resolute and, at times, defensive speech explaining the swift fall of U.S.-trained security forces in Afghanistan to the Taliban and his decision to pull troops from that country, President Biden also drew a red line Monday for the use of future military force.

“If they attack our personnel, the U.S. presence will be swift and the response will be forceful. We will defend our people with devastating force, if necessary,” Biden said in a speech delivered from the White House that followed a weekend during which Afghan security forces melted away and Taliban fighters seized control of the country.

Condemning Afghanistan’s military for its apparent refusal to stand and fight the Taliban, Biden said a continued U.S. military presence there was not in the country’s interests.

Facing withering criticism from Washington Democrats and Republicans alike, he acknowledged that the destabilization in Afghanistan occurred “more quickly than expected,” but he went only so far in accepting blame.

"I am the president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me," Biden said.

Instead, he set blame squarely on the shoulders of the Afghans.

"So what's happened? Afghanistan's political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,” he said, adding, “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future.”

Over the weekend, Biden made no public appearances or on-camera statements as news broke that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country while the thousands of Western-trained security forces gave way to Taliban fighters. On Saturday, Biden authorized sending additional troops to Afghanistan to assist the “orderly and safe drawdown of U.S. personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance." By Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Kabul, was fully evacuated.

President Joe Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)
President Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House on Monday. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Senior administration officials admitted to being shocked at the speed with which Taliban forces seized control of the country and its capital. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC News on Sunday that Biden faced “bad choices.”

“The choice he made … to ultimately ask the Afghans to step up and fight for themselves — it is heartbreaking to see what is happening in Kabul, but the president had to make the best possible choice he could, and he stands by that decision,” Sullivan said. He explained that the White House believed that Kabul’s fall to the Taliban was “not inevitable.”

Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director under President Barack Obama who oversaw military efforts in Afghanistan and served in Iraq, told NBC News on Monday that the scene in Afghanistan is “catastrophic.”

“It's also heartbreaking. It's tragic,” Petraeus said. “And I do think there were alternative approaches, options, that we in fact should have considered.”

With scenes of Afghan desperation playing out on American televisions and on social media, Biden returned to the White House on Monday morning to make his address from Washington.

“I am deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision to end America's war fighting in Afghanistan,” he concluded before returning to Camp David.

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