US President Joe Biden formally announced his decision to begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan on May 1, with a full withdrawal by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
“It is time to end America’s longest war,” Biden tweeted after announcing a detailed plan of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
“US troops, as well as forces deployed by our NATO allies and operational partners, will be out of Afghanistan before we mark the 20th anniversary of that heinous attack on Sept. 11. but we will not take our eye off the terrorist threat,” Biden said.
CNN reported that Biden’s plan to end America’s longest war has prompted a split on Capitol Hill among both Republicans and Democrats.
The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 in retaliation for Al-Qaeda’s attack on the US, which was planned and executed in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. About 2,500 US troops remain in the country.
Warning for Taliban
“We will reorganise our counter-terrorism capabilities and the substantial assets in the region to prevent the re-emergence of the terrorist threat to our homeland over the horizon. We’ll hold the Taliban accountable for its commitment not to allow any terrorist to threaten the United States or its allies on Afghan soil. The Afghan government has made that commitment to us as well, and we’ll focus our full attention on the threat we face today.”
We will ask other countries in the region do to do more to support Afghanistan, especially Pakistan, as well as Russia, China, India and Turkey. They always have a significant stake in the stable future for Afghanistan. Over the next few months, we will also determine what a continued US diplomatic presence in Afghanistan will look like.”
“I’m the first president in 40 years who knows what it means to have a child serving in a war zone. Throughout this process, my North Star has been remembering what it was like when my late son Beau was deployed to Iraq. How proud he was to serve his country, how insistent he was to deploy with his unit and the impact it had on him and all of us as home,” Biden said.
