Joe Biden to address nation on deadly chaos in Afghanistan

President Joe Biden will address the nation on Monday about the US evacuation from Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of American forces turned deadly at Kabuls airport as thousands tried to flee the country after the Talibans takeoverThe White House says Biden will travel back to Washington from the Camp David presidential retreat to speak at 345 pm from the East RoomIt will be his first public remarks on the Afghanistan situation in nearly a week Biden and other top US officials had been stunned by the pace of the Talibans swift routing of the Afghan militarySenior US military officials say the chaos at the airport left seven people dead Monday including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss ongoing operationsAfghans rushed onto the tarmac of the capitals airport as thousands tried to escape after the Taliban seized powerSome clung to the side of a US military plane before takeoff in a widely shared video that captured the desperation as Americas 20year war comes to a chaotic endAnother video showed the Afghans falling as the plane gained altitude over Kabul US troops resorted to firing warning shots and using helicopters to clear a path for transport aircraftThe Pentagon confirmed Monday that US forces shot and killed two individuals it said were armed as Biden ordered another battalion of troops mdash about 1000 troops mdash to secure the airfield which was closed to arrivals and departures for hours Monday because of civilians on the runwayThe speed of the Afghan governments collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief and he came under withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failedBiden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20year war a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Westernstyle democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace itNational security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the speed with which cities fell was much greater than anyone anticipatedrdquoHe blamed the governments fall on the Afghans themselves telling NBCs ldquoTodayrdquo show that the US ultimately could not give Afghan security forces the ldquowillrdquo to fight to defend their fledgling democracyldquoDespite the fact that we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars to give the best equipment the best training and the best capacity to the Afghan security forces we could not give them the will and they ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they would not fight for the countryrdquo Sullivan saidThe turmoil in Afghanistan resets the focus in an unwelcome way for a president who has largely focused on a domestic agenda that includes emerging from the pandemic winning congressional approval for trillions of dollars in infrastructure spending and protecting voting rightsBiden remained at Camp David over the weekend receiving regular briefings on Afghanistan and holding secure video conference calls with members of his national security team according to senior White House officialsHis administration released a single photo of the president on Sunday alone in a conference room meeting virtually with military diplomatic and intelligence expertsHe is the fourth US president to confront challenges in Afghanistan and has insisted he wouldnt hand Americas longest war to his successor But he will likely have to explain how security in Afghanistan unraveled so quickly especially since he and others in the administration have insisted it wouldnt happenldquoThe jury is still out but the likelihood theres going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikelyrdquo Biden said on July 8Just last week though administration officials warned privately that the military was crumbling prompting Biden on Thursday to order thousands of American troops into the region to speed up evacuation plansPresidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump also yearned to leave Afghanistan but ultimately stood down in the face of resistance from military leaders and other political concerns Biden on the other hand has been steadfast in his refusal to change the Aug 31 deadline in part because of his belief that the American public is on his sideA late July ABC NewsIpsos poll for instance showed 5537 of Americans approving of Bidens handling of the troop withdrawalMost Republicans have not pushed Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan over the long term and they also supported Trumps own push to exit the country Still some in the GOP stepped up their critique of Bidens withdrawal strategy and said images from Sunday of American helicopters circling the US Embassy in Kabul evoked the humiliating departure of US personnel from VietnamSenate Republican leader Mitch McConnell deemed the scenes of withdrawal as ldquothe embarrassment of a superpower laid lowrdquoSenior administration officials believe the US will be able to maintain security at the Kabul airport long enough to extricate Americans and their allies but the fate of those unable to get to the airport was far from certainIn the upper ranks of Bidens staff the rapid collapse in Afghanistan only confirmed the decision to leave If the meltdown of the Afghan forces would come so quickly after nearly two decades of American presence another six months or a year or two or more would not have changed anythingBiden has argued for more than a decade that Afghanistan was a kind of purgatory for the United States He found it to be corrupt addicted to Americas largesse and an unreliable partner that should be made to fend for itself His goal was to protect Americans from terrorist attacks not building a countryIn July he said he made the decision to withdraw with ldquoclear eyesrdquo His judgment was that Afghanistan would be divided in a peace agreement with the Taliban rather than falling all at onceldquoTheres going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the mdash of the United States from Afghanistanrdquo he said in July ldquoThe likelihood theres going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikelyrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever