- U.S. President Joe Biden has made the call to end America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, which was first launched after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001
- American troops have occupied Afghanistan for two decades in a bloody feud with the Taliban dubbed the “forever war”
- Now, President Biden is echoing former President Donald Trump, calling for the war to come to an end
- President Trump signed a peace deal with Afghanistan in February 2020 and committed to withdrawing all U.S. troops and their North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from the country by May 1, 2021
- President Biden will let this deadline pass and instead committed to withdrawing all troops by September 11 — the 20-year anniversary of the devastating terror attacks against the U.S.
- The Afghan government said it “respects the U.S. decision” to withdraw forces after the original May 1 deadline
- According to the Australian Department of Defence, Australia currently has around 80 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO alliance
U.S. President Joe Biden has made the call to end America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan which was first launched after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001.
Dubbed the “forever war”, U.S. troops have occupied Afghanistan for two decades in a bloody battle against the Taliban. So far, the war has caused almost 2400 U.S. military deaths and tens of thousands of Afghan deaths.
However, in a rare moment of unity with former President Donald Trump, President Biden announced this week it is “time to end” America’s war with Afghanistan.
“I’m now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan; two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth,” President Biden said.
“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” he said.
The comments come as the deadline to recall U.S. troops posted in Afghanistan outlined in President Trump’s peace deal with the Taliban approached.
The peace deal
From the beginning of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump was vocal about his plans to bring American troops home from overseas wars.
“I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars, where our great military functions as a policing operation to the benefit of people who don’t even like the U.S.A.,” the former president tweeted in 2019.
True to his word, President Trump dramatically scaled back the number of American troops posted overseas during his presidency before signing a peace deal with Afghanistan in February 2020.
Under the deal, fighting between the two nations stopped on the condition that all U.S. troops and their North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies were to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the start of May 2021.
A lapsing deadline
Now, President Joe Biden has reaffirmed the White House’s plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, though in his decision, he has defied the May 1 deadline under the Trump deal.
Instead, President Biden has set a new date to withdraw all troops from the country by September 11 — the 20-year anniversary of the devastating terror attacks against the United States in 2001.
“We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.” President Biden said.
“We already have service members doing their duty in Afghanistan today whose parents served in the same war. We have service members who were not yet born when our nation was attacked on 9/11,” he added.
“War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking.”
Under President Biden’s plan, troops will begin their departure from Afghanistan on May 1 and will be completely withdrawn over the following four months.
While the Afghanistan government threatened last month to resume hostilities should foreign troops still be in the country after the May 1 deadline, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said on Twitter today the country “respects the U.S. decision” to withdraw troops by September 11 instead.
Tonight, I had a call with President Biden in which we discussed the U.S. decision to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by early September. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan respects the U.S. decision and we will work with our U.S. partners to ensure a smooth transition.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) April 14, 2021
“As we move into the next phase in our partnership, we will continue to work with our US/NATO partners in the ongoing peace efforts,” he said in a follow-up tweet.
While troops are leaving the country, the White House said it would continue to support Afghanistan through development, humanitarian and security assistance.
According to the Australian Department of Defence, Australia currently has around 80 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO alliance.