“Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation building,” the president said in an address from the White House on Monday.
Biden spoke after video and photographs posted online earlier Monday showed chaos at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands of people swarmed the tarmac.
Thousands of Afghans have rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport, some so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death.
Biden has faced criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike for the swift collapse of Afghanistan’s government.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Sunday without notifying his cabinet or sharing plans for a government handoff, cementing the Taliban’s hold over the country, according to The Washington Post and The New York Times.
If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S.
“We must act swiftly to protect Americans and our Afghan allies and partners on the ground,” he said.
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