US President Joe Biden announced Wednesday it's "time to end" America's longest war with the unconditional withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, where they have spent two decades locked in a bloody stalemate with the Taliban.
Dubbed the "forever war", the US military onslaught in Afghanistan began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.
Now, 20 years later – after almost 2,400 US military and tens of thousands of Afghan deaths – Biden has named September 11 as the deadline by which the last US soldiers will have finally departed.
“It is time to end America’s longest war,” the US president said, though adding that American troops will “not conduct a hasty rush to the exit."
Biden said the drawdown would begin rather than conclude by May 1, the deadline for full withdrawal under a peace agreement the Trump administration reached with the Taliban last year.
"We'll do it responsibly, deliberately and safely, and we will do it in full coordination with our allies and partners, who now have more forces in Afghanistan than we do," Biden said.
"I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats," he said. "I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth."
Shorly after his address, America's NATO allies said in a statement they agreed to also start their withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1.
Analysis: Implications of US withdrawal from Afghanistan
https://zenodo.org/communities/regarder-reine-du-sud-s5-e2-french-en-episodes-complets/?page=1&size=20
https://zenodo.org/communities/regarder-reine-du-sud-s5-e2-french-en-episodes-complets/about
https://zenodo.org/communities/watch-grey-s-anatomy-s17-e12-engsub-en-full-episodes/?page=1&size=20
https://zenodo.org/communities/watch-grey-s-anatomy-s17-e12-engsub-en-full-episodes/about
https://zenodo.org/communities/regarder-grey-s-anatomy-s17-e12-french-en-episodes-complets/?page=1&size=20
https://zenodo.org/communities/regarder-grey-s-anatomy-s17-e12-french-en-episodes-complets/about
Biden's decision is not a shock. The war is hugely unpopular among voters and Biden's predecessor Donald Trump had committed to an even earlier exit of May 1.
Biden ally Senator Bernie Sanders called it "brave".
However, there was immediate criticism from some quarters that the United States is abandoning the Afghan government and encouraging jihadist insurgencies.
"Wars don't end when one side abandons the fight," influential Republican Representative Liz Cheney said.
"Withdrawing our forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 will only embolden the very jihadists who attacked our homeland on that day 20 years ago," she added.
Taliban 'confident' of victory
Biden said in his speech that Washington would continue to support the Afghan government, only not "militarily".
The US president had earlier considered stationing a residual US force to strike at al Qaeda or other international jihadist groups in Afghanistan or making withdrawal contingent on progress on the ground or in slow-moving peace talks.
In the end, he decided to leave only personnel to guard installations like the US embassy in Kabul, a senior official said.
"The president has judged that a conditions-based approach, which has been the approach of the past two decades, is a recipe for staying in Afghanistan forever," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Analysis: Afghan government will struggle to contain Taliban alone
https://steemkr.com/greys/@allocine-fr/greys-anatomy-streaming
https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/67bb6db12e77f1d7cf2dcb1e516e4d9fa9f3a06190893fecea0c54a95ed1a559
https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/be08be08c231dc56f9ba7a7143353a19bfab80ba54f9734910d3227be44d54fc
https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/8d1a20a7731da479ab3ac71a6cea1c7a759478c0ef67465a302cc8b2ed62ee02
https://paiza.io/projects/ZwcGlUNmU_jA-pwQAV3V7A
https://onlinegdb.com/S1uK6hE8d
https://urlscan.io/result/90d7e028-3d77-4f2b-8381-8079b20cb601/
https://urlscan.io/result/82a2f10b-7f0d-4267-90e4-8c5b139095cc/
https://urlscan.io/result/5c950b42-d033-431b-9c9a-37100c1a35b0/
https://steemkr.com/news/@berkahmovie/minnesotaofficer-to-be-charged-over-death-of-black-motorist-daunte-wright
https://cox.tribe.so/post/biden-announces-afghan-withdrawal-says-time-to-end-america-s-longest-war-us--60773f4fc04cbf950a2339ef
https://jsfiddle.net/Klakaka89/chy5paw0/1/
https://www.peeranswer.com/question/60773d0ef3b1e40d7abcee35
The planned withdrawal comes as the Taliban are observing a truce with US troops and their allies but not with forces loyal to the Afghan government.
A threat assessment report published Tuesday by the director of US national intelligence said the Taliban "is confident it can achieve military victory".
The looming upheaval raises big questions over the future of attempts to modernise Afghanistan, especially for Afghan women who have benefited from increased rights, like access to education.
The Taliban, who enforce an austere brand of Sunni Islam, banned women from schools, offices, music and most of daily life during their 1996-2001 rule over much of Afghanistan. Two decades later, 40 percent of schoolchildren are girls.
Turkey has said it will host a US-backed peace conference from April 24 to May 4 that would bring together the Afghan government, the Taliban and international partners.
But Mohammad Naeem, spokesman for the Taliban office in Qatar, said the insurgents will not participate in any conference on Afghanistan's future "until all foreign forces completely withdraw".
A decade ago, the United States had about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan.
The troop figure by the end of Trump's presidency had gone down to 2,500. As of February this year, NATO had around 10,000 troops in the country.