Target of sharp criticism after the fall of Kabul, President Joe Biden on Monday "strongly defended" his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, assuring that Washington's mission had never been to build a democratic nation in the country unstable fell into the hands of the Taliban.
“After 20 years, I reluctantly learned that there was never a good time to withdraw American forces,” said the American president during an address to the nation, delivered from the White House and very expected because of the presidential silence during the historic weekend.
"The truth is that all this took place more quickly than we had expected", he conceded, however, after having had to interrupt his leave in the face of the scale of the controversy.
“Our mission in Afghanistan was never meant to build a nation.
It was never supposed to create a centralized unified democracy ", affirmed the democratic president, specifying that the only objective" remains (is) today and has always been to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil " .
We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11, 2001 — and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again.
We did that — a decade ago.
Our mission was never supposed to be nation building.
- President Biden (@POTUS) August 16, 2021
Faced with the reigning chaos, the tenant of the White House also threatened the Taliban on Monday with reprisals if the latter were to disrupt the evacuation operations underway at Kabul airport.
In the event of an attack, the response will be "swift and powerful," warned Joe Biden, vowing to defend US nationals with "devastating use of force if necessary".
The United States will continue to engage for the “women and the young girls” of Afghanistan, still promised Joe Biden, qualifying as “heartbreaking” the scenes seen in recent days.
As soon as his speech was over, Joe Biden returned to Camp David, a resort for American presidents located not far from the federal capital.