Biden Defends Withdraw of U.S. Troops From Afghanistan

In a speech yesterday, President Biden defended his decision to pull U.S. Troops out of Afghanistan. The President said he takes responsibility for the decision to withdraw from the country by the end of August but blamed former President Trump for signing onto an earlier agreement with the Taliban for the withdrawal date of May 1st. Yesterday’s remarks were the first time Biden spoke since the withdrawal with the only comments coming from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Central Command Commander General Kenneth McKenzie spoke in the hours after the final military plane left the country.

Taliban leaders declared victory over the United States from the tarmac of the Kabul Airport yesterday following the withdrawal of the last U.S. Troops on Afghan soil. They celebrated by making their way through the airport and through an abandoned hangar containing equipment that U.S. soldiers left behind. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said he’s not concerned about abandoned aircraft saying “they can inspect all they want, they can look at them, they can walk around — but they can’t fly them. they can’t operate them.” Adding the U.S. military had made all things left behind unusable.