President Biden promised on Thursday that he won’t “send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan,” saying the United States’ military mission will end by Aug. 31. The update comes just a couple days after the Pentagon said the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is about 90% complete.
Biden spoke in the East Room of the White House, taking questions from reporters and defending his administration’s decision to fully withdraw. Said Biden: “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build. How many more, how many more thousands of America’s daughters and sons are you willing to risk? How long would you have them stay? It’s up to the Afghans to make decisions about the future of their country.”
Biden’s remarks come amid renewed peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Iran. The Taliban have taken control of more territory in Afghanistan recently and stepped up attacks against government forces. Some fear that the Taliban could again seize control of the country from the current government in as little as six months, a situation that existed before U.S. forces arrived in 2001. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that while the United States aims for a “negotiated peaceful, political settlement,” it has the ability to support the Afghan military without a formal presence there.
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