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US President Biden
Photo: Evan Vucci / AP
After the Taliban's triumphant advance in Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden raised serious allegations against the disempowered political leadership and the armed forces of Afghanistan.
"The political leaders of Afghanistan have given up and fled the country," said Biden on Monday in the White House.
"The Afghan military has collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight."
Recent events have confirmed that the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was the right decision: “American troops cannot and should not fight in a war and die in a war that the Afghan armed forces are unwilling to wage for themselves. "That's why he's firmly committed to his decision," Biden said. It would not have made any difference if US troops had stayed in Afghanistan any longer. He was against "endless military operations," emphasized Biden.
According to the President, the USA can effectively fight Islamist terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda even without a permanent military presence in the target country. The US military shows this in other countries such as Somalia or Yemen. If necessary, this could also be done in Afghanistan in the future, said Biden with a view to the imminent withdrawal of US troops.
Biden announced in the spring that the 2,500 or so remaining soldiers would leave Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the attacks. Most recently, the withdrawal date was brought forward to the end of August. In view of the advance of the Taliban, however, the US military has been increasing its presence again since last week in order to secure the evacuation of embassy staff, American citizens and former Afghan employees of the US military. The US armed forces want to have up to 6,000 soldiers stationed at the airport in Kabul shortly. Biden has threatened the Taliban with "a swift and strong" military response in the event of an attack on US forces.
The Taliban once granted refuge to al-Qaida fighters and the then head of the terrorist organization, Osama bin Laden.
The attacks by the terrorist group in the USA on September 11, 2001 then triggered the US-led military operation in Afghanistan, with which the Taliban were ousted.
You had ruled Afghanistan since 1996.
Bin Laden was killed in May 2011 during an operation by US special forces in Pakistan.
nek / dpa