America’s military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31, President Joe Biden has announced. He noted that the drawdown of US troops in the war-ravaged country is proceeding in a secure and orderly way.
In a major policy address on Afghanistan on Thursday after a meeting with his national security team, Biden said that the US has accomplished its goals in the country and this was the appropriate time to withdraw.
Nearly 20 years after it invaded in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the US military has "achieved" its goals in the country, killing Osama bin Laden, degrading Al-Qaeda and preventing more attacks on the United States, Biden said.
"The status quo is not an option," Joe Biden said of staying in the country. "I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan."
Biden dismissed reports that the Taliban would take over the country soon after the withdrawal of the American troops from Afghanistan.
Biden's address came as fighting raged for a second straight day in the capital of Afghanistan's Badghis province, with residents either fleeing the city or barricading themselves in their homes.
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