WASHINGTON, August 31. /TASS/. The US operation on evacuating people from Kabul airport was "an extraordinary success." This opinion was expressed by US President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday following the completion of this operation.
The US president stressed that the success of the mission in Afghanistan was enabled by US military personnel, diplomats and reconnaissance specialists who "risked their lives to get American citizens, Afghans and our allies onboard planes and out of the country."
The head of state noted that the US ended its longest foreign military campaign. "We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history," he said. "No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history; only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it," the US president added, noting that over 120,000 people were evacuated to safety. According to Biden, this number is more than double than what the majority of experts thought possible.
Afghan war
It was no longer in US interests to continue a war in Afghanistan, Biden said.
"I refuse to continue a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people," he pointed out.
"We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refuse to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should've ended long ago," the US president noted.
"And most of all, after 800,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan... After 20,744 American servicemen and women injured, and the loss of 2,461 American personnel, including 13 lives lost just this week, I refuse to open another decade of warfare in Afghanistan," Biden said. According to him, it was "the right decision, the wise decision, the best decision for America."
Bided emphasized that the US had achieved its initial goal in Afghanistan by "delivering justice" to Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
After the Biden administration announced the end of US military operation in Afghanistan and the pullout of troops, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country. US troops left Kabul by August 31, ending their 20-year-long presence in Afghanistan.