Stand 'squarely' behind decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan: Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden has conceded that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan happened more quickly than anticipated but insisted that he remains squarely behind his decision to withdraw American troops from the wartorn country amidst gutwrenching images emerging out of KabulIn his address to the nation from the White House on Monday following the dramatic fall of the Afghan national government to the Taliban a defiant Biden rejected blame for messy pull out amid chaotic scenes of Afghans clinging to US military planes in Kabul in a desperate bid to flee their home countryHe described the images coming out of Afghanistan as gutwrenching but said Ive learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forcesI stand squarely behind my decisionWe were cleareyed about the risks We planned for every contingency But I always promised the American people that I will be straight with you Biden saidHe blamed the USbacked Afghan government and military for allowing the Taliban to take overThe truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated So what happened Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country he said a day after embattled Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the countryHe said American troops cannot be dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselvesThe Afghan military collapsed sometimes without trying to fight If anything the developments of the past week reinforced that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision said the US president who briefly interrupted his summer holiday returned to Washington from the presidential resort of Camp David in the state of MarylandThe Taliban on Sunday declared victory after President Ghani fled the country and his government collapsedThe militants return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a USled coalitions presence in the countryWe spent over a trillion dollars We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300000 strong Incredibly well equipped A force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO alliesrdquo Biden saidWe paid their salaries provided for the maintenance of their air force something the Taliban doesnt have The Taliban does not have an air force We provided close air support We gave them every chance to determine their own future We could not provide them with the will to fight for that futureiquest Biden saidThere are some very brave and capable Afghan special forces units and soldiers But if Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now there is no chance that one year one more year five more years or 20 more years of US military boots on the ground would have made any differenceiquest he saidAnd heres what I believe to my core It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistans own armed forces would not The political leaders of Afghanistan were unable to come together for the good of their people unable to negotiate for the future of their country when the chips were downrdquo he addedRecalling his meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chairman Abdullah Abdullah at the White House in June and telephonic conversations in July Biden said We talked about how Afghanistan should prepare to fight its civil wars after the US military departed to clean up the corruption in government so the government could function for the Afghan peopleWe talked extensively about the need for Afghan leaders to unite politically They failed to do any of that I also urged them to engage in diplomacy to seek a political settlement with the Taliban This advice was flatly refused Ghani insisted that the Afghan forces would fight But obviously he was wrongiquest he saidBiden asserted that he will not repeat the mistakes the US has made in the past the mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of America of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of US forcesThose are the mistakes we cannot continue to repeat because we have significant vital interests in the world that we cannot afford to ignoreiquest he saidldquoI also want to acknowledge how painful this is to so many of us The scenes were seeing in Afghanistan theyre gutwrenching particularly for our veterans our diplomats humanitarian workers for anyone who has spent time on the ground working to support the Afghan people for those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and for Americans who have fought and served in the country serve our country in Afghanistanrdquo he saidWithin hours of the Taliban takeover chaos erupted at Kabuls international airport as desperate Afghans raced to flee the country A harrowing video captured Monday showed Afghans storming the military side of the airport and clinging to a US Air Force plane as it attempted to move down the tarmacIn the video at least three people appear to fall to their death as the aircraft took offAs the Taliban took hold of the country Democrats on Capitol Hill and former Obama administration officials joined Republicans in publicly criticising Bidens handling of the situationThis 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